Timeless
by Dream Kitten
Summary: 500 years after the last battle with Sephiroth, Cloud took one last dip into the Lifestream, only to seemingly end up in the past. Taking the chance to save the future, he finds himself in a situation he never imagined he would be in. Rating may change.
1. Pain of Time

**Author's note (please read): Recently I've been playing way too much FF7 than should be healthy and after reading a few time travel fics I was a little disappointed that almost none of them featured Cloud as old as he was in AC. Then I stumbled on Eir's tomorrow. The idea and the concept of it were actually the root for this story, though my damn mind warped it into something totally different even before I started writing. The start of the story is similar, but I changed the plot significantly. The problem is, even though I have the major events planned out, the little pieces in between are sprouting directly from my mind onto paper. Well, I'll see where it leads.**

Chapter 1.

Somehow, he wasn't even surprised he was here again. After all, this was the place of his birth, his creation, the home of an alien monster, the place where his hero became his enemy. The place where he died, only to be cruelly brought back as a monster, and later hailed a hero.

Nibelheim.

Even after over 500 years, the name of that small, at first glance insignificant village sent violent shivers down his spine. Not even the ultimate healer Lady Time was able to ease the wounds he was dealt in this town. He would never be able to make peace with this place. He knew that much.

And yet, since Tifa's death, over 470 years ago he found himself returning to this ghost town, whose hollow eyed people always looked at him as if expecting him to turn into one of the monsters he often killed when he came to the town. Cloud almost snorted. All around the world he was hailed the Planet's Hero, The Immortal Guardian, and he was despised and feared in his own hometown.

A little mountain town that still persisted in existing, years after Midgar became ruins overgrown with wildlife. The town didn't change, and if he didn't see people change every time he came to visit, he would have thought they were immortal. Like him.

It wasn't hard to guess that he was cursed with eternal life. After all, Sephiroth wasn't the only one who was too stubborn to stay dead. Cloud was just too stubborn to die in the first place. It was obvious really. He had lost count of the times he was on the brink of death, only for Aerith and Zack to appear and push him back into the land of the living. After some time of lengthy discussions with Reeve, they concluded that due to Mako and Jenova/Sephiroth cells in Cloud's blood, his body couldn't dissolve into the Lifestream and thus, couldn't grow old, so the only way for him to die is for something to kill him. And that would be extremely difficult.

"The energy we have is only borrowed, and one day we have to give it back." Marlene's words rang in his head clear as day. "But you Cloud, you have been gifted that energy. Even if you wanted to, you cannot give it back." She spoke those words once, when she was just a girl. The second time, she was a wrinkly old woman, on her deathbed, her frail hand in his.

"Because I'm a monster?" The words left his mouth before he could stop them.

She just smiled. "No Silly, because it would be rude to return a gift."

If anything, his face became even more forlorn. "Monsters don't deserve gifts."

"Then it's a good thing you're not a monster."

Those were her last words.

The day she died, Cloud left Edge and mounted his monster of a machine, willing it to lead him away, away from the pain caused by the loss of another person dear to him. Without even noticing, the weather around him became colder, windy. Snowy. That wasn't the first time he returned to Nibelheim, and it was far from the last.

As the deaths of his friends and their children began piling up, his blind escapes to Nibelheim became more frequent. But he rarely went down to the town itself, preferring to stay on the outskirts, in the forest and often venturing into the Mako caves. On rare occasions he did stray into Nibelheim itself, he would only do it during the night. That was how he acquired his nickname: The Ghost of Nibelheim. As there was little to do in a small town but gossip, many stories of how he came to be emerged.

One said that was a Midgar-war veteran who left his love in this town, but died in the war and returned as the ghost, looking for the love he came too late to save.

Another one said that he was a SOLIDER who went to join the old ShinRa, died and returned to his hometown in order to seek peace. This one was a little too close to the truth for Cloud's taste.

There were many more, but the one Cloud agreed with the most, was the one saying that he was one of the monsters from the ShinRa mansion, lurking around because he was unable to stray far from its place of creation. Somehow, Cloud was more comfortable with the thought that he kept coming here because he was drawn by the Mako in his blood to the place of his birth and his creation than that he kept returning in order to seek peace and forgiveness. Monsters didn't deserve forgiveness.

He wondered when he started sounding like Vincent.

The memory of the gunman sent pangs of pain in his heart as he fingered the summon materia in his pocket. For a while, the morose gunman had seemed to find peace with his sins and his demons, something Cloud envied him for a while on. After Deep Ground was defeated, Cid made god damn sure that the ex-Turk wouldn't try to go to sleep again. Or worse. He got Vincent a job at Highwind ship as navigator, dragging him all over the Planet, weathers Vincent liked it or not. Cid swore with every swear word in his extensive vocabulary that he would get the gunman to smile and to 'live a little', as he put it.

It seemed to work. The morose cloud that hung over Vincent's head 24/7 seemed to dissipate and he could even be caught with a slight smile on his face every once in a while. But alas, everyone knew such happiness is not allowed to last.

It was stormy. An early stage of a hurricane. Turbulent, but nothing the Highwind couldn't handle. That was what Cid said. Some had disagreed. Cid just retorted:

"This ship survived Sephiroth, WEAPONS, Remnants and Deep Ground freaks. Not even Gaia herself could destroy this ship. I'll be damned if I let her."

Turns out, Gaia took it as a challenge.

The little storm soon became a hurricane too big for even the Highwind to handle. Cid had cursed Gaia in at least ten different languages, he did everything he could to keep the ship in the air. It was all to no avail. The ship crashed into thousands of pieces in the nearby mountain.

Number of survivors: 1

Vincent had been on the ship. He had tried to help the Captain, he did everything he could short of releasing Chaos to try and save the ship and its crew. It was all in vain. The ship crashed anyway. When Vincent came to, he was surrounded by snow, ice, metal, fire and blood. Charred pieces of metal licked by the dying fire, bodies of the crewmembers mauled by the crash, some beyond recognition. By the time he found Cid, it was too late. Vincent just fell to his knees next to the cold corpse, and silently cried. He stayed there long after the fires of the ship died out and snow covered his cape.

He probably would have become an ice statue if Cloud's strong connection with the Lifestream didn't alert him to the crash. When the ship hit the mountain the planet let out a cry so strong it almost brought him to his knees. Fearing the worst, Cloud drove Fenrir at maximum speed at the foot of the mountain and ran the rest of the way. The sight was enough to shake even a war veteran like him. He found Vincent almost completely buried under the snow with a body that was unmistakably Cid.

Vincent was as still as a statue. Cloud didn't say anything. He came to stand next to Vincent, thrust First Tsurugi into the ground and just stood next to him, letting him mourn his loss, only occasionally wiping the snow from himself and Vincent.

Gaia only knows how long they stayed there before Vincent silently stood up. Cloud dislodged his sword from earth and turned towards Fenrir. Vincent followed him in silence. When Cloud mounted the monster bike and pointedly looked at him, Vincent just sat behind him without argument. It told volumes of just how much Vincent was shaken. Cloud practically herded him to Seventh Heaven. Tifa was about to ask what happened but when she saw the state of the two men she kept quiet and started making a 'Cloud special', a drink she herself concocted that was almost pure alcohol and the only thing that could get a SOLIDER drunk, but fatal to a normal human. Then again, Vincent wasn't exactly human. And she had a feeling he would need it.

Three glasses later, moist started misting in Vincent's eyes. He didn't sob, didn't even outright cry, just let an occasional tear slip from his eye while he told them what happened. Cloud sat opposite of him, listening to him without saying a word. He was never really good with words and Vincent didn't seem to mind. But what Vincent said at the end startled him.

"Years ago, when Lucrecia died I went into hiding, and when AVALANCHE chased me out I started running away. And now the history is repeating itself, right from the start." Vincent let out a sigh that could be described as wary.

"I was better off hiding." He murmured.

"But then you never would have met Cid. Or us." Cloud finally spoke, just as quietly.

"And I would have only the deaths of the past to live with, now I have been burdened with the deaths of the present too." When Cloud looked like he was about to say something else Vincent cut him off.

"You don't need to try and comfort me. You will understand what I was talking about in a few decades." And with those cryptic words he stood up and left the bar with a sway of his cloak.

It was four years before Cloud saw him again.

Cloud was coming back from a delivery when he felt a surge of magic power come from the Lifestream. It was the same thing he would feel when a new summon had been created. As the surge had been especially strong, it meant the summon had been especially powerful. When a flick of the glowed wrist sent Fenrir speeding in another direction the surge happened again. From the same direction. This time weaker, but still powerful. Now confused Cloud kicked Fenrir in a gear higher, unable to shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.

When three more surges happened, with the last one being the most powerful, Cloud was on the verge of panic. Or better yet, the Planet was. Which meant something was unnaturally entering the summon void. A sort of a pocket space in the Lifestream where summons reside. But it sent a jolt of his own panic when he came to the place the surges were coming from.

The Nibeheim Mansion.

Sword drawn, muscles tensed and ready for a Sephiroth-level battle, Cloud entered the mansion, hoping beyond hope that the materia he was looking for was on the upper mansion floors. Unfortunately for him, the source of the magic power could be felt giving off small pulses as the Lifestream kept fighting off its advances. They were coming from the basement. As he collected the willpower to force the frightening images of his imprisonment in the labs to the back of him mind the pulses grew stronger.

When he came down it was pitch black save for an intense red glow of a small crystal ball on the floor. It was the summon that was causing such ripples in the Lifestream. Cloud bent to pick it up, but as soon as his glowed hands touched the smooth surface, his entire world went white.

He was surrounded by white. White world of white mist. It looked like the entrance to the Lifestream but it felt different.

"Why did you come here?" Vincent's voice resounded around him. He turned around looking for a source of the voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere. Instead he came face to face with an unknown summon. It had red leathery wings which were wrapped around him like a cloak, ripped to shreds on the bottom. It's skin was deathly gray, and the hair that was held back with a red bandana was black with the ends looking like they were on fire, and among the knotted tresses was protruding a horn, as sharp as the fangs poking out a bloodied mouth. Its left hand was covered with bandages, but even those couldn't cover the black talons on the hand.

It took him a minute before he realized he was looking at Vincent.

"What happened to you?" Cloud whispered lowering the sword he didn't even realize was still poised to attack.

"You didn't answer my question." 'Vincent' retorted. He seemed uncomfortable that Cloud was here.

"The planet felt something forcing itself into the Lifestream. Five of them, actually. It panicked and I came looking for the source. I found a red materia in the basement of a ShinRa mansion. Your materia apparently." Cloud paused to regard Vincent more carefully. He now looked like a strangely deformed version of Chaos. Though, it was logical that the most powerful demon would take over the most aspects of the shared body.

"Why did you turn yourself into a summon?" Cloud found he was having difficulties keeping his voice its usual monotone.

"It is a fitting punishment for my sins." 'Vincent' looked down. "You have to go. The planet won't allow its Golden WEAPON to become a mere summon."

"What are you talking about?" Cloud tensed at how 'Vincent' called him but before he could do anything a black clawed hand gave him a forceful push at the chest and sent him reeling backwards, out of the world of white mist. When he opened his eyes he found himself on the floor of the ShinRa mansion's basement, the red materia in his hand.

It was hard to say how long Cloud sat there on the floor looking at the materia in his hand. After what seemed like hours, days, weeks, he got up and pocketed the red materia. With a swish of cloth he was out. Out of Nibelheim, away from the nightmares, to contemplate Vincent's words.

It had been so many years since then. And only when Marlene's great granddaughter, who he raised almost singlehandedly, died the same way her predecessor did, with her hand in his, a smile on her face, did he finally understand Vincent's words.

Every person taken away takes with them a piece of your heart, until it's too frail to beat again, yet unable to stop. All that remains is a pain your chest, like it knows something is missing, and knows it cannot be returned or replaced. And that pain eats away at you, from the inside, a merciless itch you cannot scratch, a wound that cannot heal, until it drives you into madness.

Cloud then understood Vincent's words more than he ever wanted to.

The original AVALANCHE was long gone, leaving their children behind with their knowledge passed onto them. Those children had their own children, passed their knowledge to them, and then perished. Some followed the footsteps of their great ancestors, some did not. Some died like Marlene did, in their warm houses, in their beds, and Cloud by their side. But the most painful deaths were the ones Cloud couldn't prevent, those who died long before their time was up. The children he raised and helped raise, the ones dearest to him, even the ones who were not so dear to him.

It was deaths like those that tore Cloud apart.

And through it all Cloud remained unchanged. He stayed the same, his hair, his sword, even his leather clothes, never changed, seemingly unaffected by the ebb and flow of time. But, like the stone, even though it seemed to remain the same, the waters and winds chirped away grain by grain of sand off its surface, just like time and death chirped away little more of Cloud's heart with every year.

Aerith and Zack's visits became less and less frequent. By now, he hadn't heard from them in almost twelve years. For Cloud, who heard voices of the Planet, Jenova, Sephiroth, Aerith, Zack and about half the Lifestream in his head since he left Hojo's lab, it became way too quiet. Even the Planet stopped its whispers and was content with the peace he kept on its surface.

Cloud couldn't remember if he ever felt this… alone, before.

So when the stories of his and his friends' actions to save the planet faded into legends, the stories mothers told their children before bedtime, old tales grannies spoke of when there was somebody willing to listen, Cloud was forgotten. The hero the stories described was not a morose mercenary with a mysterious past, but a courageous, optimistic young man, with a cheerful smile, spiky hair and a giant sword.

The stories described Zack Fair.

Though it was mostly Turk's fault, Cloud might have been partly to blame for it. Often when he came to someplace, if they would let him stay at a nearby inn in exchange for killing a few monsters, he would sit on the inn's porch with children surrounding him, listening to his tales of how the hero defeated the calamity from the skies and her son with the most rag-tag group of people the Planet had ever seen. But in his stories, there was one major lie; in them, Cloud was the one who died, and Zack was the Ex-SOLIDER who jumped from the top of a train, buster sword in hand, and joined the AVALANCHE with Tifa. In a way, he was. But nobody suspected that the actual hero of those stories was the one sitting with them. After all, when parts of the truth start fading over time, the rest was easy to fill out and manipulate.

Cloud would know. He lived such a lie and by such manipulation for too long.

Aerith's church had been rebuilt, mostly by the children of the original AVALANCHE, and Cloud kept it in order since then. After the meteor, many people came to the church to see the magical pool that healed the Geo Stigma, or at least see the flowers that somehow still remained blooming even after years underwater. But as the planet grew healthier, and people forgot the meaning of the church that was in their stories, the sacred place was forgotten along with Cloud.

Zack's buster sword still stood there. This time, Cloud made damn sure there was never any rust or blemish on its surface, but he somehow still didn't have the heart to remove the vines of the blooming Clematis flowers that wound their way around the blade. He figured that even in death, the proof of Zack and Aerith's love for each other was allowed to show.

They deserved it more than anyone. Especially him.

The people of the Edge called him 'The Warrior Monk'. He supposed that was partially true. After all, even though he was no Cetra, he could hear the whispers of the planet, visit the Lifestream at will and he could talk to dead people. The title 'Warrior Monk' kind of suited him. For some time, Cloud thought he was content with himself, travelling with his monster bike he always called Fenrir, no matter how many times he had to build it anew, around the world, slay monsters and then return to the church he lived in once again.

Bu then it came. The Anniversary, as he dubbed it. The day Sephiroth was defeated for the last time. Somehow he always remembered. He somehow instinctively knew that it was that day, every year, without fail. But those days always left him melancholy. For every time that day came, it meant another year went by with him barely noticing it. It was the only way he kept track of time anymore. When today came, and he looked back at how long has it been he had been shocked.

500 years had passed since the final death of Sephiroth. 470 since Tifa's death. 465 since Yuffie's. 490 since Cid's. 486 since 'Vincent's'. 471 since Barret's. 460 since Reno's. 422 since Denzel's. 420 since Marlene's.

The years of the deaths were so many, Cloud wondered how he remembered them all. And even though the Lifestream had claimed so many of his friends and family, it never took him in, never even letting him pass the white space in between, the sort of rift between the two worlds. He had been going to that space in between almost regularly for a few years, hoping to see his deceased friends. Sometimes, Aerith was there. Sometimes, she would be with Zack. Most of the time not. But only Aerith came. The others' souls merged with the Lifestream, becoming just a thread in its endless strings of green. Cloud figured that was because she was a Cetra. In those few years, he perfected the art of disattachment, leaving his body sitting on the floor of the old church while his soul wandered the white world, searching for a flash of pink dress.

But ever since that fateful question almost twelve years ago, he never saw her or anybody else again, no matter how often he ventured into the void, or how long he would stay there.

"When will I join you?" It was a more polite saying of the question: "When will I finally die?"

A look of fear passed Aerith's face, soon replaced by something that looked like regret, sadness and… Guilt? She looked up at him with those green eyes of hers and said in the saddest voice he ever heard her use.

"I don't know."

Cloud didn't know what to think of her last words before she disappeared into the Lifestream. She had seemed so sad, like she knew the real answer was too painful for him to hear. That simple sentence seemed to hold the secret to the day of his demise. And if it ever will come.

Cloud figured he wouldn't get his answers by going to the void again, as he had been trying that for long enough, without yielding any results. So he did what he had always done. Hopped on Fenrir, and at full speed drove away to Nibelheim.

And that was how he found himself here, in the Ghost Town. He parked Fenrir in a secluded spot near the town, but still far and hidden enough that overly curious strangers wouldn't try to steal it. He would like to see them try though. If even Reno couldn't even drive it, much less steer it, common civilians had no chance.

Standing on the face of the mountain overlooking Nibelheim, Cloud tried to convince himself that the goose bumps he felt over his back were due to cold, but he knew better. Every time he closed his eyes, all he would see was a burning town. How masochistic of him, Cloud thought, that he kept coming back to the place that brought him so much pain.

Inevitably, his gaze was drawn to the still standing reactor. He always wondered why NeoShinRa never deactivated the reactor. Even though the rest of the world mostly used oil as a fuel that Barret had discovered, Nibelheim was the only town that still ran on Mako power that Cloud had seen. He didn't even know who kept the reactor up and running.

When Cloud shook his head off such thoughts, he realized he started walking towards the reactor. He hesitated. Even though he came to Nibeheim regularly, the centuries old reactor was one place he never ventured. It held too many memories of failure and mistakes. It had been 500 years since Sephiroth's death, even longer since he was last in there. If in all that time he couldn't make peace with the town itself, there was no way he would be able to make peace with the place that marked the beginning of his death. Sephiroth died in there, and along with him died the boy who aspired to be like him, to be a hero.

That train of thought was interrupted by an idea: if the dip into the Mako reactor killed Sephiroth, wouldn't it kill him as well?

When Cloud asked Aerith when he would finally die, she became terrified, probably because she thought he wanted to take his own life. But the thought never occurred to him until now. He always thought that a stronger opponent will come, kill him, and take his place as the Planet's guardian, so he would finally be able to rest in peace. He lingered because he thought he might be needed. But he wasn't. Not anymore. The Planet didn't need a guardian. The people of the Planet retained peace, held from engaging in any wars because they all remembered what happened during The Great War.

So, if he wasn't needed to guard the Planet, what was his purpose? The Calamity and her Son had been defeated, ShinRa had fallen, WEAPONS were destroyed, his comrades had perished, and yet, he was still here. He hadn't heard even a whisper from the Planet in years, only sometimes a satisfied humming, much like that of a purring cat. The Planet was content, there was no threat… Did that mean he was free to go? Would, when he finally came to the Lifestream, Zack appear and, in his distinctly Zack-ish manner, slap him on the shoulder and ask him what took him so long? Would Aerith come too, and hug him, and say she missed him? Would he be able to see his friends, see if they had reunited with each other and their children in the Lifestream?

Cloud's gaze fell on the reactor. Only one way to find out.

With a determined step, ignoring the goose bumps on his flesh and a knotting feeling in his stomach, Cloud headed to the steps that led to the reactor. Unfortunately, the assault of memories, flashbacks of Tifa's bloodied body on those steps, Zack's still one just lying there kept repeating. The torturous images almost made him give up and turn away, but he steeled his resolve, reminding himself that this was nothing compared to some of the things he went through. Even though every step was an agony to make, Cloud eventually made his way to the reactor core. He stood on the rail, looking down into the unrefined Mako. One more step, and he would be gone for good from this world, and hopefully join the others in the next.

Cloud took a deep breath, and jumped.


	2. Ghosts of the Past

**Author's note: I was halfway finished with this already and it was raining outside. It left me in a kind of angsty mood that was just perfect for this fic. Don't expect the third part so soon though, these things take time to write!**

_Chapter 2._

Do you know that feeling when you are falling, the feeling you get when you know that you're going to die, and you start second guessing yourself, if this one way ticket to the afterlife was really the best choice?

Cloud had no such feeling. After 500 years of living as a ghost, his whole life filled with death and loss of the people dear to him, and him just standing by, he ceased to care about how he would meet his demise. He just wanted it to happen already. And it wasn't his style to simply change his mind when the deed had already been done. He still gripped First Tsurugi's handle as he hit the acidic chemical below.

At first he didn't feel anything, but after the initial shock he remembered just why those years spent in the lab, locked in a Mako tank for most of the time left him so scarred mentally. It _burned_. A red hot flame licking at your skin was nothing compared to being dunked into a vat of Mako. And being dunked into a pool of _unrefined_ Mako was a thousand times worse.

Closing his eyes in pure agony, clutching the sword's handle over his heart. Suddenly he felt something beneath his feet. Something solid. Still incoherent from the Mako induced agony, he started running on instinct, eyes closed tightly. He ran blindly, until the searing green pain started subsiding. But just as it started to fade he started losing the ground beneath his feet. A surge of panic erupted through him, though at this point he wasn't sure if it was his own or the planets. After all, he was intruding into the Lifestream. Usually when people died, their loved ones came from the Lifestream to take them. Nobody came for him, so the Planet was in panic and he was in pain. But he will be damned if they sent him back now! With that thought in mind, Cloud _roared_, and swung First Tsurugi into nothing.

Or he thought he swung it into nothing. In mid swing, the sword hit something that literally broke like glass. He opened his eyes only to see white shards of glass. One shard changed its course and slashed him right across his right eye. He flinched, even though it didn't hurt and when he opened his eye again he could see perfectly well with both eyes. And what he saw had him almost gaping.

Strings. Thousands, millions of them. So many green strings. Twisting, twirling, dancing, weaving… It was beautiful. Whispers hit his ears, curious, wondering and some frightened. Cloud couldn't make out any words, but somehow, listening with his soul, he could vaguely make out what was said.

_Who is he? Is he one of us now? How did he get here? Didn't anyone come for him? How did he die? Did he die? He came here on his own, what is he?_

A few strings began weaving themselves around his arms, legs and torso, only an inch away from touching him. Cloud stayed still, somehow content to listen to their whispers of wonder and be engulfed in the green strings. But almost out of nowhere, the green strings before him began weaving together, stringing, forming a shape. Before long that shape became green silhouette of a woman, her eyes glowing, and her string-hair floating around her. It was unmistakable to Cloud who she was.

"Gaia." Cloud said reverently and bowed his head out of respect.

"Why are you here?" She asked. Her voice was like many voices whispering. Then again, she was the voice of the planet, and since the planet was made of many souls with many voices, it was kind of expected.

"I died. Isn't this where I'm supposed to go when I die?" Cloud's question was only half rhetorical.

"You cannot come here. You're a WEAPON. Golden WEAPON. Immortal Guardian. You protect us. You cannot come here." Her words sounded urgent, almost like that of a frightened child. Her words sounded like she needed a whole lot of concentration just to form a sentence.

"What do you mean? I can't die?" Cloud was somewhere between feeling hurt, angered and confused. And what did she mean he was a Golden WEAPON? Wait, wasn't that how Vincent called him once, long ago, when he became a summon?

"You too powerful. Like Calamity. You protect us from above. But you cannot come here. Destroy everything. You stay there. You protect us. But not come here." Her words became more urgent and her sentences worse.

Cloud couldn't believe what he was hearing. The Planet thought he was the Calamity? Granted he had J and S-cells imbedded in his bloodstream, but that didn't make him one of them! And Gaia expected him to be at her beck and call, yet never let him come to the Lifestream? Like he was some… _puppet_ for her to manipulate?

Puppet.

_Puppet._

_"Give me the materia, my puppet."_

"I'm nobody's puppet!" With such a surge of rage that Cloud hadn't experienced since he last heard Sephiroth call him that, Cloud swung his sword towards the manifestation of the Goddess and sliced her in half. The entire place around him shook like an earthquake and a banshee-like screech pierced his ears. Out of a corner of his eye he spotted several green strings trying to wrap around him and he swung his sword at them, effectively cutting them in half. Another enormous tremor shook through the Lifestream and more shrieking could be heard. Cloud's ears felt like they were going to explode but he still hacked through the Lifestraem's strings that were trying to wrap around him and restrain him.

But no matter how hard he tried, no matter how many times he split the sword, they eventually managed to overpower him. Blind with pain of having its very life strings cut, the Planet wrapped him in the remaining threads, and with all the power it could muster, _PUSHED. _Pushed all its power into him until it pierced his chest, drained all its power into that single thrust. Pain filled his entire being, infinitely worse than anything he ever felt before. Cloud screamed, his throat burning, his lungs on fire, lightning behind his eyelids, and then…

_Dark… Stars… Light… Green…_

_Green… Oh so much green…_

When opened his eyes again he was once again in the pool of endless green. Mako. _But it can't be, it doesn't burn._ Cloud squint his eyes. It seemed like he was… floating up. And sure enough, a few more moments later his head broke the surface of the Mako. Cloud opened his mouth to take a big gulp of air, only to realize he didn't need it.

That was _weird_. Why didn't his lungs burn even though he was Planet knows how long dunked in Mako and not breathing?

_Something is wrong…_

Burning or not, Cloud didn't want to spend any more time than necessary in the reactor. And as it turned out he shouldn't have even bothered, he thought bitterly as he swam to the edge of the reactor. Now, how the Hell was he supposed to get up!? The walls of the reactor core were slick and vertical, without any cracks to help him climb. Granted it had to be, but he hadn't seen anybody _near_ this reactor for centuries! What did Reeve use when he built them, anyway? Bones and armors of WEAPONS?

_Wouldn't have put it past him…_

In the end, Cloud, with a little maneuvering, took First Tsurugi's two smallest identical swords. Not exactly the best climbing gear but it would do. Cloud took a nice momentum to stab the sword into the wall but to his utter horror and surprise, both the sword and his entire arm went through the wall. Cloud jerked it back so fast it blurred before his eyes. If he damaged a reactor it could cause a leak and then he was screwed.

But his moment of panic was interrupted when he noticed that the wall looked untouched. Confused, surprised and still horrified as all Hell Cloud looked at his hand gasped with horror when he noticed it was literally _transparent_ around the edges of his fingers. But before he could even comprehend what was happening the transparency of his fingers began to fade and the hand looked solid once again.

Cloud felt cold shivers ride up his spine, and for once, it had nothing to do with either the Mako or his haunted memories. Gaia said he cannot die, but then what was he now? Then it hit him.

_"You cannot come here."_

She didn't say he couldn't die. She simply said he couldn't come to the Lifestream. So that meant he could die, but there was no afterlife for him?

For the first time in centuries, Cloud wanted to cry. But instead he simply sheathed the swords and propped his feet onto the wall. And like the pull of gravity had changed, he walked up the vertical wall like he would on normal ground. In any other situation, he would have probably been excited, but now, it only reminded him that he was now a ghost, truly a monster.

_A ghost without a body. I wonder if Sephiroth had been around like this and we didn't have any clue?_

His question couldn't be answered and, even though his enemy had been dead without a trace for centuries, he couldn't help but shiver at the thought that the Calamity's son had possibly been watching them while they were oblivious to his presence. That made him wonder... Sephiroth obviously couldn't enter the Lifestream so Gaia created a sort of a space/time pocket in the Lifestream, similar to the summon void, to contain him after he had been defeated for the third time. Cloud hadn't seen him since for literally five hundred years. It must mean it was holding him quite well. So if Cloud posed a threat like the Calamity, why was he allowed to roam (relatively) free? After that stunt he'd pulled of cutting the image of the Goddess in half surely he couldn't be allowed to just walk out?

_They probably think I don't pose any threat to them in this state._

That was the most likely conclusion. For Gaia's sake, he couldn't even touch a wall, much less try to destroy the planet. If it thought him a threat, he would end up like Sephiroth or, if Gaia was feeling especially cruel (and suicidal), _with_ Sephiroth. Fourth dimensional pocket or not, they would _obliterate_ the planet if they ever ended up in the same space together.

Cloud stopped his vertical walk when he came to the railing he jumped off of and hit it nose on. Even though he felt no pain his hands flew to his face to clutch his nose out of reflex. Cloud's head began spinning again. What the Hell happened now?! First his hand went through the wall but he hit the railing by walking into it? He glared at the rough underside of the metal that had been his jumping board to death. It was the same material as the rest of the reactor, so what was different? He reached out with his hand and sure enough, it passed through it like it did with the wall.

The ageless SOLIDER was feeling somewhere between irritated and confused. He looked at his hand and then back at the grey metal that seemed to be mocking him. Cloud entirely blamed what happened next on the whole Lifestream fiasco and his fried nerves.

He punched the railing off its hinges and got it imbedded into the wall.

Cloud took a step back (or down, whatever) instinctively. _That _wasn't supposed to happen. Or maybe it was? A little suspicion was slowly sneaking from the back of his mind to the front of his brain. He _wanted_ to punch it. So he did. Cloud slowly walked up to the railing protruding from the wall, not even noticing when the pull of gravity mysteriously shifted again. He crossed his arms and started what would have been an epic glaring contest had the railing been able to glare. But alas, it isn't alive so it wasn't able to glare back, though Cloud dared it pretty hard.

After a few minutes of what Cloud had finally realized was a futile exercise, the blonde SOLIDER reached out his hand, all his focus in that simple act, stubbornly _refusing_ to fail.

His leather clad fingers gently brushed over the metal surface.

Cloud blinked. It worked. It really worked. Suddenly he frowned, and with a little hum, tried shifting his focus to make the hand go through the metal. And sure enough, his fingers sunk through the railing as though it wasn't there. Or rather, his hand wasn't there.

Cloud was also mildly surprised to find out that even ghosts could develop a headache.

He was also thankful that during his 500 years of wandering the planet, he learned every language that had any significance and quite a few which didn't. Thus, he proceeded to utilize his knowledge to curse Gaia with every swearword he ever heard in every language he could translate it into as he walked out of the reactor. But once he came out of the reactor, the stream of curses which would have had Cid taking notes was stopped when he realized he had no idea what to do now.

He was a ghost. That made him wonder if people of Nibelheim had any clairvoyance abilities to call him a 'Ghost of Nibelheim' even before he became one. Wouldn't have been surprised him, actually. That little town had a frightening habit to make weird things all around the world look like a daily cooking channel. After all, both he and Sephiroth had originated from this town, this was where Jenova had been housed, where Hojo had done his experiments, one of which had been himself…

Cloud got an idea. Possibly stupid and seriously frightening idea. But at this point he was getting slightly desperate. And no matter how insane Hojo was, even Cloud had to give it to him, he really was a mad genius. It wouldn't be surprising if, when he deemed Cloud as a failure, he had started another experiment which disabled Cloud to enter the Lifestream. Cloud didn't really see a point to that experiment, but then again, anything that was deemed impossible was like challenging Hojo to do it. The 'good' doctor really liked one upping Mother Nature a bit too much. _WAAAAY _too much.

The answers were where all the questions started.

_The ShinRa mansion._

Cloud started cursing anew.

* * *

But cursing or not, he was nevertheless on his way to the ShinRa mansion. But there was a slight problem: he had to pass through the village itself. _Well, _Cloud thought, _time to see if my invisibility theory was correct._

It turned out it was. As he strolled into the town like he owned it, the few people who were mulling about in the early evening didn't even look at him, even though if he was ever seen his appearance alone would have warranted a second look, the sword on his back made people give him a wide berth. In a way, Cloud was relieved. That way he wouldn't be stared at and whispered about. Even though the Turks, or what was left of them, did a damn good job about erasing all his data from any history records, his hair, clothes and his sword were hard not to stare at.

But on the other hand, that way he was rid of all possible human contact. As much of a lone wolf he was, even he couldn't stay isolated for too long before wanting to talk to someone, or at least listen to the talking around him. Cloud supposed the urge was the remnant of his humanity.

Remnant. Another word that left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Similar dark thought followed him on his way to the wretched mansion. As he stood before its ominous doors, Cloud swore it became even more frightening. But there was also something not right with the mansion. It looked… almost new?

Cloud began to worry. Last he had seen the mansion it had been rotting and barely standing. Not it looked almost 550 years newer! Which meant that somebody rebuilt and repainted it. But something like that would take weeks, months, years if they were through and cleaned the basements! Cloud felt icy shivers up his spine.

_How long was I in that reactor?_

Now more than ever afraid to step past the front gate and into the mansion itself, Cloud took a deep breath and with steady steps entered the place of his haunting. Rather than prolong the inevitable and actually open the door, he simply manifested through them, eyes closed. It made the passing a bit easier.

Cloud almost laughed out loud at his own pun.

But when he opened his eyes he almost took a step back through the door because of what he saw.

_Turks._

They were unmistakably Turks. In all his 523 years of life Cloud had never seen anyone copy the Turk's uniform so perfectly. It was hard to do when there were actual Turks walking around, but nearly five centuries after the last Turks perished, and their uniforms along with them, was impossible!

And yet there were two Turks right there, standing guard at the door. The ironed suits, the shirt, the color, the _glasses_, everything was perfect down to the finest detail. Knowing the Turk couldn't see him, Cloud came to stand right in front of the one on his left. The Turk made no move, so he waved a hand in front of his face. Still nothing. Then on impulse, though perhaps a bit stupidly, Cloud did something he probably shouldn't have.

He thrust his hand right through the Turk's chest.

The Turk in question shivered very violently and bent over. Cloud quickly stepped back so the man wouldn't fall on him, and quickly distanced himself as his Turk buddy came over and asked him about his health. That was proof to Cloud that they were rookies. A seasoned Turk would already have a weapon out to shoot whoever had made the other kneel over like that. Cloud didn't even have to observe the interactions of Turks for years to know that much.

Actually, it was more due to Reno getting drunk one night at Seventh Heaven and Cloud being stuck on Turk sitting duty to make sure the redhead didn't pull a strip tease on the table like the last time. The redhead's silver tongue became pretty loose if he was drunk enough. And that time, he decided that Cloud would make a 'kick-fucking-ass Turk' and proceeded to teach him on finer points of being one.

Reno. He still missed the wild daredevil. He still missed all members of Avalanche.

Cloud was jerked out of his thoughts by thundering of boots across the floor. He was thrown in for another loop when he saw the dress of the men that were racing to the Turks.

SOLIDER uniforms. Quite a bit outdated, but unmistakably SOLIDER. It wasn't like the one he remembered Zack wearing, but more like his own. And from Zack's memories, he had found an outdated SOLIDER uniform when they escaped the lab. This very same lab.

_They were dressed just like him._

Purple, so they were seconds. But still, Cloud somehow couldn't hammer it in his head that they were _SOLIDERS_. The race of fighters that basically perished along with their General. He was the only one left, and even he was a badly made copy of two greatest fighters on the planet. Unable to look at the people he aspired to be such long time ago, he turned away and went to some random hallway. Only when he came to a flight of stairs did he realize he instinctually went to the basement levels. The labs.

_Figures, can't stray far from its place of creation. Just like all the other Sephiroth clones._

Once again shaking his head of morbid thoughts, proceeded down the stairs hoping that the files were still down there. But if those people were really SOLIDERs and Turks, then the original Turks weren't as through as he thought as they were if there were _actual _SOLIDERs running around! It also meant that there was a fair chance they got their hands on some remaining data of the original ShinRa. And if there was _one_ place even the Turks didn't clean, it was the ShinRa mansion.

Which meant it was a fair bet that the data _he _was looking for was also there. If it was used to make SOLIDERs again, it was probably under lock and key. It was actually a blessing that such barriers meant nothing to him now. Well, they didn't pose any obstacle before, but now he could do it with subtlety that would have made Yuffie blush with jealousy.

Yuffie. He really missed the spunky ninja. Why did he have to be reminded of them with every turn he took? People say the pain waned with time, but not if you had perfect memory. How ironic, he remembered next to nothing of the first twenty years of his life, a life he might have once called his own, and he perfectly remembered everything of the rest of eternity.

Which brought him back to his previous point. He had no idea how much time had passed since his suicide attempt, but if there were ghosts of half of millennia passed running around in a mansion that was supposed to be rotting back to the planet, it didn't take a genius that, in best case, a few years had passed. Actually, any number of years from a few to almost another 500 could have passed while he was frozen in the reactor. And that also brought up another question: Why _now?_ True, natural saturated Mako was almost a gooey substance that was hard to float out of, but what had happened that he came out now?

His head was beginning to hurt, but he was betting that the dark halls and the all too familiar whirr of the machines were having something to do with it. Including the deep instinctual fear that took root in his bones and was now gripping him like a dragon's clamped maw.

Refusing to be deterred by a fear he should have gotten over long ago, Cloud set a determined pace, not unlike the strides that took him past the mansion's entrance, right to where he knew the main lab to be. If there was one place such valuable data would be in, it was the vault in the main lab. Still, it didn't help that no matter if he looked up or kept his eyes firmly on the black uninteresting floor, memories, both hazy and clear ones, were resurfacing and nearly made the bile from his stomach want to come into his mouth.

As expected, there were two guards at the door, these ones only Third Class. Cloud almost snorted but held himself. He knew he was invisible, but he still wasn't sure if he was able to produce any sound normal humans could hea-

A scream ripped through the air. High pitched, shrill.

_A child._

Rational mind taking a backseat and letting instincts take the lead, Cloud pulled out his sword and burst through the door like an invisible hurricane. The sight of his worst nightmare laughing manically in front of a glass covered with Mako from the inside, a silhouette of a screaming child on the other side…

Cloud saw green.

With a roar that would have sent lions scampering away like tabby cats, Cloud swung his sword at the mad professor, and in the same swing broke the glass to get inside. Just as he thought, it was a Mako shower, and _child was inside it!_ Cloud quickly fell to his knees over the tiny figure and gathered it in his arms. The Mako fell on his back, burned at his skin right through his clothes. But he couldn't dematerialize, not when he had to protect the poor kid! He was at least used to it, he couldn't move, not even if his back felt like it was being ripped apart all the way to his spine!

After what seemed like hours, but in reality wasn't even a full minute, the rain of green stopped and he was granted a few seconds of relief. Then he remembered a little figure burrowing its face into his chest. He looked down and his heart almost stopped right then and there when he saw silver hair. With hands that shook he pried the little hands from his jumper and distanced the child away from his enough that he could see his face.

Green cat eyes looked back at him confused.

_"Sephiroth?"_

No matter the age, the time apart or any number of factors included, Cloud could never forget those eyes. Those same eyes that looked right into his soul, yet never managed to get closer than the distance of a sword. But these eyes lacked the madness that he had seen all too clearly in them half a millennia ago. They were the eyes of a child. Innocent.

All doubt was removed when a little voice asked "How do you know my name?" breathless because of the torture its owner endured. It wasn't that deep baritone that made Cloud's skin go colder than Shiva's, but the way the words were pronounced, even though they didn't have the poetic quality they would have in his later years, they were a start.

_It was definitely Sephiroth._

As Cloud sat numbed with shock looking at inquiring feline eyes, a group of lab assistants came into the chamber with a stretcher. Cloud numbly let go of the silver haired child as a stranger's hands pulled him away and put him on a stretcher. Sephiroth turned his head to look at Cloud, and it only then occurred to Cloud that he could _see him! _

Almost in a daze, Cloud reverted to his age old way of coping: he disappeared into the Lifestream's void. He didn't even register the way his hands faded in front of his eyes, how the child on the stretcher way calling for him not to go.

He hadn't seen anything.

Sephiroth was half sitting and looking in alarm at the fading figure of the angel. He couldn't go, not now! Sephiroth tried to struggle as the assistants restrained him, muttering something about Mako delusions, but he was too weak from the Mako dip to stop them. His last thought before a needle with a tranquilizer was plunged into his arm was a quiet one.

_Please come back!_


	3. Eyes of my Enemy

**Author's note: that's it, it's official. I've gone completely crazy! Another chapter so soon! It's been raining endlessly since yesterday so there wasn't much to do BUT write. Whatever, enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 3.

When Cloud opened his eyes again he was greeted with a familiar sight of endless white sky, and an equally endless field of colorful flowers. Knowing for a fact that Aerith wouldn't appear he didn't even bother standing up, so he simply sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. A perfect time to think and he needed to do a _lot_ of that.

First off, the child he saw was definitely Sephiroth. The mad scientist laughing that bone chilling donkey laugh could have actually been Hojo! Probably was. There were SOLIDERs, Turks, the mansion was new, and the reactor was clean and practically _polished, _which meant it was probably relatively new…

There was only one logical conclusion, and no matter how absurd it sounded there was no other explanation.

This was the past.

He had been thrown back in time. When he had slashed the Lifestream's strings with First Tsurugi he must have done something to interfere with the Lifestream's very flow of time. The sword was after all made from the remains of the WEAPONS, and they were made from the Planet itself to be ridiculously powerful. That was probably another factor in his time leap.

Damn, he had no idea how he did it! Cloud really wished he had Reeve here. The man would probably rant an explanation for half an hour in words Cloud could barely comprehend and when he was finished, sigh dejectedly, then explain everything in words Cloud could understand. Over the years with him Cloud had come to understand quite a bit of what he was saying, but the engineer would always surprise him with something he had no idea existed, much less knew how it worked.

When he expressed even a briefest interest Reeve was only too happy to explain, brag or talk about it just because he liked to rant about mechanics. If he and Cid were left in the same room together unsupervised, they would either start talking in a language nobody could understand or transform some kitchen appliance into a robot. Needless to say, they could never be left alone without someone to watch over them.

Cloud was usually the mechasitter. Unless they managed to talk him into a conversation with them, usually by mentioning Fenrir. Which is how they couldn't leave any two of them in a room together in any way or combination. All three of them were fatal. Reno had once walked in the room while they were talking about the finer points of engineering and he ran out, screaming about his brain melting at too much nerdiness.

Cloud sighed. He couldn't believe that even after five centuries the little needle-like pain kept stinging in his chest every time he was reminded of AVALANCE. It also didn't help that he was deathly afraid of needles. Especially hollow ones.

Which brought him back to his previous point. If it was really the past, and Sephiroth was a child here, it meant all this was happening way before he was born! It _would _explain why he was an incorporeal ghost, but not what he was doing here? Then again, the Planet was pretty upset when he lashed out like that, maybe it was all a coincidence? That seemed like the most likely conclusion. But why _this_ time frame? It was too close to his original life. But that might have also been a factor.

Cloud's head hurt. This was ridiculous! And as far as he knew, it never happened before. He had half the mind to try and get into the Lifestream itself and demand the answers from the Goddess, but that could result in _another _time loop. Even though anywhere but here would be a nice enough place to be, he didn't want to screw everything up again.

Cloud sighed. There wasn't really any point in dwelling here any longer than he had to. If he was going to get his answers at all, he damn sure wouldn't get them brooding here. Been there, done that. And the longer he stayed here with nothing but memories to occupy his mind, he would start having flashbacks. Mostly of his misadventures with AVALANCHE. There was nothing really wrong about them but it hurt that much more when he snapped out of it and was reminded that they were-

Cloud's head snapped up. If this was the past, then they weren't gone! Much younger than he remembered them and some not even born yet, like him, but they weren't gone! Cloud started to laugh in shock. They weren't gone! He would get to see them again!

Then his hopes were dashed again when he realized he couldn't. First of all, he was _invisible_. How do you contact a person who couldn't see or hear you? Second, they wouldn't even remember him. How could they? He didn't even exist yet, at least not in the way that counted.

Then there was another problem. Sephiroth _could _see him. It might have just been the effects of the Mako shower, but he was never the less the only one who could see him. What if he remembered him? Child or not, that was just asking for a disaster. But Sephiroth asked how he knew his name, so he probably didn't remember.

The blonde warrior let out yet another sigh. He was stalling, he knew, but he wasn't sure he could handle seeing his arch enemy again after such a long time, child or not. And he still needed to wrap his head around the fact that he leaped _back in time! _

_Gaia REALLY hates me. But that is a given I guess._

Cloud closed his eyes and focused. For some reason it was harder going back to the real world than going to the rift. But never the less, decades and centuries of practice enabled him to perfect the transition and soon Cloud found himself sitting on the floor of the fixed Mako shower. He wasn't really surprised. Time flowed differently in the Lifestream than it did in the real world. What seemed like hours to Cloud might have been days or minutes in the real world.

And now it seemed it could go backwards too.

Not giving it too much thought Cloud materialized through the glass and started mulling around. The sight of test tubes he was once held in was enough to make him almost audibly shiver. He passed some assistants who were cleaning the equipment and chatting about something. Cloud almost bypassed by them until one word caught his ears.

_Hojo._

Suddenly all too interested, he came closer to them. They were talking about Professor Hojo alright, but also about the incident with the Mako shower. His curiosity piqued beyond ignoring now, he came to stand on the other side of the desk with the vials they were cleaning.

"And that's not all! That freak child keeps claiming he saw an angel in there, even though it's been two days since then. Everyone wrote it off as a hallucination because of the Mako, but the kid's insistent. I'm telling you, he has some loose screws in his head." One of the lab assistants, a man, was telling his shorter female companion. She in turn glared at him.

"Don't be so cold hearted! You see every day what that poor boy is going through, it's probably just his way of coping. Besides, a kid having imaginary friends isn't very new. And he has no real friends." He looked at her disappointed. With a sigh he continued putting the vials in their proper place, not even looking at her as he spoke.

"He isn't a child. No _human_ child has that eyes, no child _of any kind_ could do half the things this monster can. He's not even a monster, even monsters can feel pain, he is a _machine! _Deus ex machina, though he's the machine that made the God."

"And in that idiotic equation of yours, if he's a machine, who is the God?" The female assistant looked ready to throw the vial she was holding in his face.

"ShinRa, of course. You know it's true, Stacey. You've been talking about how these experiments are morally wrong ever since you came here a month ago, and yet you have done nothing to stop it." The man glared at the woman, Stacey as he called her. On her face was written shame and even regret.

"It's because you're afraid of what ShinRa would do. We all are, but the rest of us are smarter than to go and complain about ShinRa's faults where anyone can hear us. The company pays, and that's all most people care about." He finished his angry tirade with a sigh.

"And you're just like them." Stacey angrily ripped the gloves off her hands and stalked off, clearly trying not to cry. The man sighed in irritation and continued to clean the bloodied tweezers with a faint hint of remorse on his face.

"Perhaps I am." After that he worked in silence.

Cloud watched this entire exchange feeling like his heart was being stomped on by an angry Cocobo. Is that what people thought of Sephiroth before he became ShinRa's hero? No wonder he had identity issues when he was older. Jenova had simply seen that one weakness in his heart and exploited it. Sephiroth was told his mother died at his birth, so for all he knew Jenova could have been his actual mother. She clearly wasn't alive when he first found her. In his mind consumed by madness, he thought she really offered the genuine mother's love he so craved as a child.

But a few things stuck out in their conversation. Sephiroth had said he saw an angel. Did he mean him? Cloud was a bit stupefied. As far as he knew, he had never sprouted wings. That was more of Sephiroth's area. Angel of Death, as Cloud remembered one story described him. He was the one who had a giant ebony wing, not Cloud. He almost turned around to check if he indeed had wings, but stopped himself. What a ridiculous notion. The silver haired child probably thought him an angel because he saw him appear out of nowhere and protect him before vanishing before his very eyes. For a kid who didn't know any better, even if that kid _was _Sephiroth, it made perfect sense.

Further snooping around brought him somewhere what looked like the control room. Monitors displaying what looked like every single room in the mansion covered the wall and an attendant was asleep at the control panel, a cold cup of coffee sitting forgotten next to him was a dead giveaway. Cloud stalked silent as a ghost to the control panel and looked for Sephiroth. And sure enough, one monitor displayed a room which looked more like a hospital ward with a desk and a shelf full of books above it. There was the silver haired boy sitting on the bed and reading what looked like a story book badly hidden by a textbook. The image made Cloud smile. He never pegged Sephiroth as a child who liked fairy tales, let alone like them enough to read them while he was supposed to be studying.

With a few soft taps, Cloud pulled up the information on where the room was. That done, he returned the monitor views back to their previous display and left as silently as he came, the man sleeping on his job completely oblivious to his presence. Cloud really thought the boss ought to have him fired. He had seen people fired from ShinRa for lesser things.

In an effort to navigate the basement better Cloud took the scenic route through the hallways. Walking through walls may be faster but so far he only knew how to dematerialize himself, and he never knew if he would have to be carrying something somewhere.

_Like a child out of this wretched place._

Cloud shook his head. It wasn't really his place to change things. Well, change things _more _than he already had. He was threading thriugh dangerous territory here. Sephiroth already went mad once, he didn't have to do it sooner this time. He would have preferred he didn't go mad at all, but the only solution to that would be killing him, but that was-

Cloud froze in the middle of his walk. Sephiroth was a child here, and he could materialize at will. He could kill him, a single stroke of a blade, strong squeeze of the neck, and he could be out of there before anyone realized he had killed their prized weapon. The future would never have to happen, Zack would never have to die, Aerith would never have to sacrifice herself, Nibelheim would never burn, he would never be made a puppet…

The idea had more merit the more he thought about it. But there was also a coiling feeling in the pit of his stomach. Killing a child in cold blood? He was many things, with very few of them good, but child murderer wasn't one of them. Granted, that child was Sephiroth, but never the less, he was still innocent of the crimes he would commit as a delusional adult aided by a creature that called herself his mother.

Cloud suddenly realized he was just standing there in the middle of an empty hallway like some creeper. True, nobody could see him, but that made it all the creepier. So he continued to his original destination, albeit at much slower pace. He kept mulling the idea in his head as he walked. While it would solve so many problems, he wasn't sure he could bear the burden of having an innocent child's blood on his hands. Psychopath, sociopath, murderer… Those were all the things he would become, and so much worse. He had to be stopped, and what better way than now, when he wouldn't even be able to put up a fight against him?

He came in front of the right door all too soon in Cloud's opinion. Beyond that door lay one of the most difficult decisions he had to make in a very long time. But also one that would probably decide the fate of the planet's future, and if there will be one at all. He took a deep breath and without letting it out passed through the door.

Sure enough, there was Sephiroth sitting on the bed, but he seemed to have taken a pencil from the desk and was writing something down in the story book. No, a paper pressed on the pages of the book. He was drawing then. Looking at him like this reminded Cloud that he would soon become a murderer of an innocent child, no better than the mad General. But still he reached to his back to the handle of First Tsurugi, his death would be painless, he wouldn't even know his head was cut off before it was too late. The blade slid out of the sheath by an inch-

And Sephiroth's head shot up. Cloud froze. Those eyes… What had he been thinking? Those eyes were nothing like the ones that once looked at him with scorn that burned Nibelheim. They were wide, pupils do dilated that they could almost pass off as those of a human. There is no malice in them. No score, no hate, only surprise and… glee?

Indeed, a tiniest of smiles was stretched over pale pinkish lips, so tiny Cloud thought he was seeing things for a moment. Neither of them moved even an inch for almost a minute before Sephiroth opened his mouth, then quickly closed it before looking down on his lap.

"Are you real?" A tiny voice sounded from his mouth. Cloud furrowed his brow, confused. Why would he be asking that? Oh, right. Those lab assistants said Sephiroth was still claiming to have seen an angel, even though everyone else said he was an illusion. After everyone claiming him to be delusional, it wasn't odd that he was starting to have doubts.

"I guess you're not…" Cloud realized he must have been quiet for too long when Sephiroth drew his knees to his chest and buried his face into them. If it wasn't for his enhanced hearing Cloud would have entirely missed the words uttered too softly for anyone else to hear.

_"I really am alone."_

Cloud couldn't deny that his heart broke at that. His hand slid the sword back into its sheath and with soundless steps approached the child curled at the bed. As he sat on the bed he was a bit surprised that the bed didn't sink under his weight. His focus quickly shifted back to the silver haired boy crying at the head of the bed. Even though he didn't sob, Cloud could smell the tangy scent of salt near him. Cloud refused to admit how much it hurt him.

So he dropped his gloved hand on Sephiroth's head and rubbed the top gently. Two green eyes slightly red at the edges peered at him past the wall of knees. With what he thought was a subtle gesture he tried to wipe the tears away with the sleeve of his white shirt. It made Cloud smile sadly.

"I'm no less real than you are." Cloud said in what he thought was a comforting voice as he wiped the tears away with his thumb. It had been a really long time since he had to comfort a crying child and he was little rusty. He still had to suppress a flinch when a hand so much smaller than his came out to grip his with lightning speed. For a second he thought Sephiroth would try to break all bones in his fingers. Not that he could, because if raging Behemoths knocking him hundreds of yards away into some building hadn't had any luck in breaking his bones, there was no way a little boy could.

But Sephiroth only took his hand in both of his and took off his glove. He spread his fingers before kneading his palm gently. Confused as to what he was doing Cloud just let his hand be examined and prodded by childish hands. After about a minute Sephiroth looked him in the eyes. His face was so full of hope it made Cloud want to squirm for some reason. But he held himself, his reputation would be entirely ruined if he could kill a grown-up Sephiroth three times and yet be unnerved by his miniature version!

"You really are real, aren't you? You're not just a figure from my mind." Sephiroth said quietly. "I knew they were wrong." Cloud had half the mind to ask what he was talking about when Sephiroth's face was split by a huge smile. Well, it was actually pretty small by anyone else's standards, but since it was _Sephiroth_, it was enormous.

"Are you my guardian angel, like Miss Ifalna said?" Sephiroth's question threw Cloud for another loop. Sephiroth knew Aerith's mother? Then again, the dates did match… Wait a second, guardian angel? His confusion must have shown on his face because Sephiroth was quick to elaborate.

"Miss Ifalna says that every person has a guardian angel that watches over them and comes to help when they need them the most. That must be you, right? Will you stay?" The second those words left Sephiroth's lips, his eyes shining with hope and happiness, Cloud knew he could never go through with his original plan of killing Sephiroth. This wasn't the monster who tried to destroy the planet, this was an innocent boy whose sin was to be born with a destiny he was too hard pressured to fulfill. He was like himself…

"I'm not sure how I fall under that category, but if you want me to, I guess I can stay around for a while longer." Cloud smiled ruefully and ruffled Sephiroth's hair again with his ungloved hand. That same hair would one day make many fan girls swoon, and many young boys come to sell their souls to ShinRa hoping to be like it's famous General, but now, that hair was more of a fluff that just reached his shoulders. It just begged to be ruffled. Besides, if the little muffled giggles were any indication, Sephiroth seemed to like it too.

Suddenly a wide yawn split Sephiroth's face. His eyes went comically wide, like he was wondering what in the world possessed him to do that. Cloud couldn't help but chuckle and that made Sephiroth frown and look away in embarrassment. The ageless warrior just shook his head and glanced at the clock on the desk. It was past midnight. Cloud might have been a bit rusty on child-raising but he was pretty sure Sephiroth was supposed to be in bed three hours ago.

"Come on, it's past your bedtime." He admonished gently and picked Sephiroth up into his arms and on his hip. Sephiroth seemed surprised at being handled like that but he just clung tight to Cloud's neck and remained quiet.

Cloud picked up the textbook and the story book Sephiroth had been reading from the bed. As he picked up the thin hardcover book of fairy tales a paper slipped out of it. Leaving the books on the table Cloud picked up the paper. As hard as he tried, he couldn't suppress a smile when he saw a scribbled stick figure on the paper with spikes for hair, leather cape around the hip and a sword twice its size on its back. And behind the sword stretched two shapes that were spiked at the ends. Wings. Sephiroth, it seemed, really thought he was an angel.

The boy in his arms picked his head off his shoulder to see what the warrior was looking at. When he saw the drawing in the older man's hands he blushed lightly.

"I'm not very good at it…" He muttered. He had never had any desire to draw something and it suddenly just came to him to draw his angel. It was the first time he found his skills lacking in anything and he was embarrassed. But Cloud just smiled and set the drawing on the table.

"It's pretty." Cloud assured him and set the boy on the bed. Sephiroth quickly arranged himself in a comfortable position on his side, looking up at Cloud. Trying hard not to be unnerved by the stare Cloud tucked him in an on an impulse gently ruffled the silver hair again.

"I have to go now." Cloud said quietly, pulling his glove back on. For a moment Sephiroth looked stricken.

"Will you come back?" For a second Sephiroth could feel cold panic in the pit of his stomach. His angel was leaving? He just got here! He couldn't go! Because…

_Because if you go I'll be alone again!_

There was only one thing Sephiroth feared. A fear that would follow him into adulthood and through years of torment drive him to madness. He was afraid of loneliness. Not the kind one would assume, he was afraid of even thinking that he was the only one like himself. A monster. That there was nobody like him. That he was alone in the world.

"Maybe." The angel answers. It didn't satisfy the young child.

"Why do you have to go?" He was his angel, damnit!

"There is… someone I'm waiting for." He answered vaguely. "I hope to see her again."

Sephiroth tilted his head. The spiky haired angel had sounded kind of weird when he said that. Somehow… what was the word? Ah, longing. But who could he long for? Sephiroth wrecked his brain trying to think of who would be that important before the angel left. But the only one Sephiroth ever missed was the Mother he never met, and knew only from the stories Professor Gast told him. She sounded like a really nice lady. Miss Ifalna had said that she went to the Promised Land, the place of supreme happiness. It must have been the place his angel was talking about.

Wait…

"Are you waiting for your mother?" Sephiroth asked. The angel turned to look at him with an incredulous expression. Was he wrong? But no, the angel laughed.

"I guess you could say that…" He said. Sephiroth wasn't sure, but he thought he heard a hint of bitterness in his voice. He would have to ask Miss Ifalna why that was.

"But I will be back. I don't know when, but I will." The swordsman assured him. He started walking to the door, but before he even reached the doors, he faded away into nothingness, to the world he belonged to.

Sephiroth laid awake for some time pondering everything he had found out today. His angel was real, but not of this world. Nobody else could see him because of that. But why could he? But he couldn't think for long about it as he was lulled to sleep by the warmth of the usually cold bed.

Come to think of it, didn't it become warm only after the angel tucked him in?

He was asleep before he finished that thought.

* * *

Cloud found himself once again in the field of flowers. He never thought it would come to that, but he was really getting sick of them. Flowers once meant peace and comfort, and their smell always made him see Aerith's smiling face. They once meant a church with a broken roof, a place he called home once his real home forgot the meaning of the word.

But now, all flowers reminded him of was that he would probably never see Aerith again, and that the church he remembered was little more than a broken wreck, without any flowers growing in it. They left him feeling bitter, and Cloud hated it. He had been feeling bitter for too long before he learned to let go. He still hated it.

This time, he didn't even bother sitting up, so he just set his hands behind his head and relaxed. It was the only time he could be alone with his thoughts, and he needed some time to properly process everything he had learned.

First of all, he realized that death apparently eradicated every brain cell he might have had. What the Hell had he been _thinking?!_ Killing Sephiroth wouldn't prevent the disasters he had to stop, at least not in the long run. Hojo would probably make another Sephiroth, if not simply try to clone him, or worse, create a clone the same way Cloud was created. Killing Sephiroth would certainly delay the inevitable, but it wouldn't prevent it. He had to strike the heart of the problem. He had to kill the one who had been the ultimate puppet master behind Sephiroth's corruption and the world's near destruction.

He had to kill Jenova.

And Hojo… Well, it was more for his own satisfaction, but he doubted anyone would protest.


	4. Guardian Angel

**Author's note: It's still raining, and the only way to pass the time is to write. Some summer vacation this turned out to be...**

_Chapter 4._

Ifalna knew what she was doing was dangerous. She knew that, no matter her status as the last Ancient, Hojo wouldn't hesitate to kill her if he had even the slightest suspicion that her actions were in anyway disrupting his carefully created 'masterpiece'. If she hadn't known better, she might have even thought Hojo's intentions were that of an overprotective father. They were overprotective, alright, but not fatherly in the slightest.

When she had first heard from Gast how Hojo treated the young child in the labs, she had been utterly shocked to her very core. How anyone could treat a child of their own flesh and blood like a mere experiment on a Petri dish was unimaginable to her. It was part of the reason she sometimes visited Sephiroth. She even gave him a storybook full of fairy tales, even though she told him to keep it hidden. The young boy was incredibly intelligent and highly educated for his age. But he was so serious! It was actually hard having to remind herself that the person she was speaking to was just little over seven years old!

But for the last few days all the child could talk about was a man with a sword he saw in the Mako shower. How the warrior had broken the glass and shielded him from the waterfall of the burning chemical. How he had saved him. And how he simply disappeared in front of his eyes. Everyone, even Ifalna, were quick to discard it as a hallucination caused by the Mako. But things just didn't add up. Ifalna still remembered the conversation she had with Gast, down to the very last word.

_Gast was standing on the entrance to the lab, watching as the assistants picked up and swept away chunks of broken glass. Glass which was several inches thick. And now was reduced to a pile of shards. The shards which everyone believed had give Professor Hojo his near fatal wound. A wound that was too _clean_ to have been cut with a piece of broken glass._

_"A gil for your thoughts?" Ifalna came to stand beside him. Even though she was technically an experiment too, she was allowed much more freedom than any other experiments. It had a lot to do with the fact that she was _Gast's_ experiment, and not Hojo's. While she was sometimes even allowed to visit the town, albeit with escort, Sephiroth had never set foot outside the mansion's courtyard. _

_"I'm worried." Gast sighed. "And, admittedly, a little frightened." _

_"Why? Sephiroth is alright now. Are you worried about Hojo?" Although she didn't mean to, her nose wrinkled slightly in distaste as she said the man's name. Whenever she was near the professor, she couldn't help but tense. And it wasn't simply because of what that man did, the Planet itself simply screamed DANGER! when she was near him._

_"I suppose I am, a bit." Gast's words snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked up at him just as he was dragging his fingers through his sparse hair. "Something about this incident just doesn't sit right with me."_

_"And why is that?" Accidents were quite rare but weren't unheard of. Everything in the labs was carefully conducted and checked twice over, but every once in a long while, somebody slipped._

_"Look at the glass." Gast pointed to the destroyed Mako shower. "They said it exploded from within, because of the pressure, right?"_

_"That is what I heard. It's also how Professor Hojo got slashed." Ifalna confirmed._

_"Well, if that was true, wouldn't the glass shards be strewn _outside_ the chamber?" Gast swung his hand as if to emphasize._

_Ifalna looked at the glass again. True to Gast's words, the glass looked like the entire glass imploded, some shards were even imbedded in the walls of the shower. But almost nothing outside._

_"You're right." Ifalna whispered in slight awe. "But what do you think happened?"_

_Gast sighed and ran his fingers through his thinning hair again. "Well, looking at it like this, it looks like something broke the glass from outside to force their way in. Also, the SOLIDERs standing outside the door say they felt something they didn't see _burst_ through the doors, something strong. Only a few seconds before all chaos broke loose."_

_"You suspect a monster attack?" Ifalna asked dubiously. _

_"I don't think so. Even if the monster _was_ invisible, where could it have disappeared off to? Nothing adds up!" Gast almost pulled at his own hair before he remembered he didn't have much of it to pull and let his hand fall at his side with a sigh._

_"Perhaps you should ask Sephiroth." Ifalna suggested. "He keeps saying he saw something, right? Maybe he saw what happened."_

_Gast was quick to wave it away. "I sincerely doubt that. What he saw was no more than a hallucination, like I said before."_

_"But why do you think that?" Ifalna pushed._

_"Because what he describes is a sword wielding MAN." Gast said disbelievingly. _

_"What?" Ifalna sounded dubious again. That was stretching imagination a bit too far._

_"I'm not kidding. He says a leather clad man with a giant sword broke the glass and shielded him from the Mako onslaught. And then disappeared into thin air." If Gast's nerves weren't so fried he might have smiled. But as it was, he just let out a sigh that might have been intended to be a laugh._

_"Besides, since Hojo was injured, the entire project is put on hold. It won't last long, so we should let the boy rest while he can." Gast said with a tone of finality. Ifalna watched him go, shoulders hunched and face in a frown._

The last of the Cetra subtly shook her head. Unlike Gast, she wasn't so quick to dismiss something Sephiroth saw. It gnawed at her until she finally managed to swipe Gast's pass card to sneak in and talk to the green eyed child.

_Casting one last look down the hallways to make sure she wasn't seen, Ifalna quickly swiped the card through the slot on the wall and the heavy metal doors opened with a quiet hiss of hydraulics. Ifalna slipped through the doors and closed them behind her. It never hurt to be cautious._

_Her arrival didn't go unnoticed by the sole occupant of the room. The silverette was sitting at his desk and writing something on the pages of a workbook. Ifalna didn't even have to look at the book to know that it was likely a high school level. At the age of seven Sephiroth was doing with ease mathematical equations that would give people three times his age a headache. Once again, Ifalna was reminded that Sephiroth was so much more than just a human boy._

_"Hello Miss Ifalna." Sephiroth greeted politely. Ifalna smiled back at him. She had long given up on getting him to call her less formally. Then again, 'Auntie' might have been a bit too informal for a child that wasn't even allowed to call his own sire 'Father'._

_"Hello to you too, Sephiroth." Ifalna came closer and sat on the unoccupied bed. Trying to be discreet, she gave the little boy a once-over. He appeared fine, thank Gaia. "I came to see how you are doing. I heard from Professor Gast that the experiment went badly. Are you really alright?" Ifalna asked with concern. _

_Workbook abandoned, Sephiroth turned around on his chair to look at her with his Mako green eyes. Ifalna had to stop herself from staring into them. Every time she was near his she could feel the very Lifestream coursing through Sephiroth's veins. But that Lifestream was tainted. Tainted with malice and wrath from somewhere within, somewhere so deep even Sephiroth remained oblivious to it. But the Planet wasn't, and it was screaming at Ifalna that the Calamity itself claimed this child._

_"I am alright now, but thank you for your concern nevertheless." Sephiroth said in that way that made him sound like he was much older than his face suggested._

_"Sephiroth" Ifalna leaned forward a bit, and Sephiroth tensed slightly, "I guess you already know there was an… accident during the experiment." Sephiroth nodded._

_"Professor Hojo was injured, and we have reason to believe it wasn't entirely by accident." In truth, she and Gast were the only ones who suspected that, and Ifalna felt terrible lying to the child but she saw no other way. Also, the way Sephiroth tensed subtly and his gaze flicked away from hers told he she had hit the bull's eye._

_"Did you see anything, by any chance, that could help us?" Ifalna pressed. Sephiroth remained silent._

_"Professor Gast told me you saw someone. A man with a sword. Is that true?!" Ifalna tried to gentle her voice, but Sephiroth now visibly tensed and started fiddling with the hem of his shirt._

_"Yes." Came the barely audible answer. Ifalna put her hand over his and the fiddling stopped._

_"It's okay Sephiroth, we just want to know what happened, we won't blame you for anything. I just want to hear you side of the story." Ifalna ran her thumb over his knuckles, a gently smile on her face. It was apparently working, because she could almost see Sephiroth cave in._

_"I saw somebody. A SOLIDER. He had glowing eyes." Sephiroth paused and with his head still lowered looked at Ifalna as if he expected her to laugh and dismiss it off like everyone else had done. But Ifalna just sat there patiently and waited for him to continue._

_"At first, it was like a normal shower. But then the pain increased. Then it began burning. Like green fire. It was like somebody was screaming inside my head, screaming things I didn't understand." Sephiroth subtly shook his head, as if he was trying to dispel the hold that screaming voice had on him. As it was, he missed the way a shock of fear passed over Ifalna's features. Unlike Sephiroth, she was perfectly aware what the screaming voice in his head was, but she didn't understand why Jenova was trying to contact him already. It was too early…_

_"And then everything exploded. The glass broke. I'm not really sure what had happened then but the voice stopped and someone was holding me. He knew my name, and I don't know how. How did he know?" Sephiroth abruptly looked Ifalna right in the eyes. She had to stop her jaw from falling. His eyes were glassy and his mouth downturned a little. Ifalna knew a child on the verge of crying when she saw one. What was so weird was that she had never seen Sephiroth cry, not even what he was being cut open without sedatives on the operation table._

_Whoever this ghost SOLIDER was, Sephiroth very much wanted- no, _needed _him to be real. Ifalna wasn't really sure why but the thought that his savior was just a figment of his imagination really frightened Sephiroth. Seeing the child of stone like that Ifalna couldn't resist the urge to comfort him anymore. She drew him into a hug and held him tightly. Sephiroth tensed for a second and then went limp. Figuring she had his consent Ifalna pulled him into her lap and started rocking him gently._

_"I believe you Sephiroth." Ifalna assured him. Small fists latched themselves onto her dress, and Sephiroth continued._

_"The burning stopped. He made it stop. I looked up at his face. He… His eyes were glowing. But not like SOLIDERs'. Like mine. Like a feline." It took every ounce of Ifalna's willpower not to tense. Had she assumed everything wrong? Was the screaming actually the voice of the planet and the SOLIDER a manifestation of Jenova? If it was, why would she appear as an unfamiliar SOLIDER?_

_Ifalna's inner panic was interrupted when Sephiroth continued. "He… looked shocked to see me. And… like he expected to see someone else, or that I didn't really look like he expected me to." Alright, that didn't really sound like something Jenova would do, so that was thrown out the window._

_"What did he look like?" Besides the eyes, he hadn't told her how he looked. She just hoped she wouldn't hear any Jenova like attributes._

_"He had blue eyes, yellow hair spikes, his skin was a bit pale and he wore a SOLIDER jumpsuit. Um, but he had a sort of leather cape on his hip and a leather sleeve on his arm. And there was a really big sword on his back." Okay, that definitely didn't match any description of Jenova that either she or the Planet had seen. __But it also didn't match with any SOLIDER she had seen._  


_"And he had wings." _That_ part however might have meant it was some kind of Summon. It would also explain where he had disappeared off to. But the description didn't match any of the existing summons and she would have known if another one was created. Was he even from the Lifestream? Now that she thought about it, was he even on anyone's side? For all she knew he could have been, or be working for some sort of third party!_

_Ifalna sighed, this was a bit too much for her. But still, Sephiroth was on her lap, probably waiting for her to tell him that it was either real or only his imagination. Too many things didn't add up for it to have been a hallucination, but even less things added up to it being real. _

_"I believe what you have seen was real." She decided out loud._

_"Do you know who that was?" Sephiroth asked her with his eyes as wide as they would go._

_"My best guess is… You met your guardian angel." Ifalna smiled slightly as she remembered the tale her mother told her when she was a little girl. The description fit Sephiroth's 'SOLIDER' perfectly._

_"Guardian angels are creatures Gaia herself has appointed to us as guards. You could say they're like Turks, a bit. Each person has their own guardian angel, and it is said that, in the times of great need they will appear and help you. It sounds like your SOLIDER, doesn't it? They are also said to reflect the heart of their ward." Ifalna couldn't help to laugh lightly at that. _

_"Will he come back?" Sephiroth asked. "Before they… sedated me, I saw him… fade away. He just turned transparent and disappeared. Where did he go?"_

_"It sounds like he went to the lifestream." Ifalna was now pretty sure the angel belonged to the Planet. What Sephiroth described sounded like a trip to the Lifestream. If it could appear like that by its own will, then the creature he thought was his guardian angel was extremely powerful._

_**And how do you know if it isn't really an angel?**_

_"Miss Ifalna?" Sephiroth tugged lightly on a lock of hair hanging in front of her face. Ifalna smiled at him._

_"It's nothing, just thinking. As for your earlier question… It's almost a miracle that you were able to actually see him. I'm not really sure if he'll be back at all, much less when. I'm sorry." Immediately Ifalna wished she didn't say that. The look of disappointment on Sephiroth's face was almost enough to break her heart. She really didn't understand how this child, who would one day have the power to destroy the world, could pull her heartstrings so easily._

_"Come on, it's getting late, I should be going." Sephiroth quickly crawled out of her lap and back on his desk chair, then continued doing his homework, like nothing had happened. Ifalna told him to pretend they never saw each other, for both of their sakes. It was better to stay hidden in this case._

_Sparing him one final glance, the last ancient let the doors close behind her._

A few days later Ifalna found herself walking that same corridor that led the Sephiroth's chamber, this time clutching a small paper in her hand. Her stomach had been in knots since she woke up that morning and she didn't know why. When she had tried to consult the planet she felt no reply. But the lack of reply wasn't what scared her. The planet didn't always grace her with an answer, but it was always there in the back of her mind, humming a little, the tune depending on its mood.

But today, it was as silent as a grave.

Ifalna nearly panicked and quickly slipped into meditating state. She began probing around for any signs of Jenova trying something to harm the planet, but she could distantly feel the alien, who was just as unusually quiet as the planet. She went deeper, so deep actually she found herself on the border of the Lifestream. She started running, preparing for a leap into the Lifestream and just before she made her jump, she thought she saw a flash of black and a silver gleam of metal in the distance. Before she could get a clear picture she found herself surrounded by waving green strings.

Ifalna was shocked how… _cold_ it was. And silent. The planet wasn't speaking, nor singing, nothing! But it was so cold. It took Ifalna some time to realize what it meant. The planet was afraid. She had never in her life felt the planet's fear, at least not to the point of total muteness, not even when Jenova had been awakened once more. No, the planet feared something else. Something that frightened it so much it refused to utter a peep in fear of incurring the wrath of the one it feared.

_A flash of black and a silver gleam of metal._

And whatever it feared it now resided in the Border. Ifalna tried desperately to quell her panic, worried she might frighten the planet even more. Whatever the Planet feared it was clearly trying to enter its heart. Then, slowly, the planet let out a tentative hum. More soon followed. Ifalna looked around, stupefied. It was still chilly so the fear hadn't been elevated completely yet, but the Planet's song clearly stated that the immediate danger had passed. Still confused, she tried asking the planet what happened.

**Danger. Time without bounds. Despair of heart. Broken never completed. Forever seeking. Never finding. Shattered like crystal.**

As usual the Planet spoke in riddles. But Ifalna prided herself for years of practice on deciphering the Planet's messages. And the sheer amount of words left her speechless. And not to mention the urgency. But, it sounded like the Planet spoke of great sadness, of past too painful to remember.

"Are you speaking of the Calamity?"

**More. Fright. Power. Time without bounds. Seeking completion. Despair of heart. Calamity weak. Wandering soul. Potential to destroy.**

Ifalna couldn't believe what she was hearing. Something _more _powerful than the Calamity, despite being broken inside. _Wandering soul. _Somebody who either shouldn't be here or had gotten lost. Maybe even both. _Potential to destroy. _So it wasn't necessarily a threat, but wielded enough power to become another Calamity. _Seeking completion. Despair of heart. _Somebody who had endured great pain. Likely losing a significant other, maybe even more than just one of them. Or had lost everything, significant or otherwise. Ifalna felt a pang of sorrow for the soul even the Planet said was broken. But the Planet called the Alien weak compared to the newcomer.

"Planet weak compared to Danger?" Ifalna asked, the words simplified since the Planet didn't understand human words very well. When she didn't get a reply for almost a minute she thought the Planet wasn't going to give one at all. But then she heard wispers, so quiet she almost missed them.

**Time without bounds. Power to have. No knowledge to wield. Son of Calamity in danger. Yet protected. The past not yet happened. Future only one know. Weapon of heart.**

She once again surprised at the effort the Planet displayed to get the message across. But she couldn't for the life of her understand what 'time without bounds' meant. Before she could try and decipher what the Planet was trying to say, she found herself being pushed out of the lifestream, back into the world of the living. She briefly saw her own body lying on the bed unmoving before she sunk into it and woke up with a startled gasp. Panting with something not quite fright she scrambled out of her bedding and grabbed a sheet of paper. Quickly finding a pen she wrote down what the planet told her.

_Time without bounds. Despair of heart. Broken never completed. Forever seeking. Never finding. Shattered like crystal._

_Time without bounds. Seeking completion. Despair of heart. Calamity weak. Wandering soul. Potential to destroy._

_Time without bounds. Power to have. No knowledge to wield. Son of Calamity in danger. Yet protected. The past not yet happened. Future only one know. Weapon of heart._

There was a pattern. 'Time without bounds' was repeated at the beginning every time. She just had to find the right _pattern, _she had to solve this, but she couldn't, even her hands were shaking-

"Ifalna?" Said woman nearly jumped three feet in the air and whirled around to see the familiar lab coat of the man she loved.

"Gast! Oh Gaia, I'm sorry, I'm just-" She cut herself off, not knowing what to say. How could she?

"Why are you so rattled love? Is something wrong with the planet?" He was immediately next to her, hugging her shoulders. She hugged him back, desperately trying to get herself under control. Gast just kept stroking her hair and waited patiently for her shivers to stop. She wasn't sure how long she had been clinging to him like that but it worked, and she could breathe normally again. Gast held her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, his own showing concern.

"Are you alright now?" Ifalna looked into his eyes. She wasn't sure if she should tell him what the Planet told her, but she could barely keep herself together. After a brief debate within her head she handed him the wrinkled paper.

"This is what the Planet told me. Does it mean anything to you?" Gast's face immediately lit up at the thought of reading the words of the Planet itself. But it soon turned into a frown when he realized the words didn't make any sense. He handed the paper back to Ifalna after a few minutes.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand what the Planet is trying to relay to you. You've always been better at riddles than me." Ifalna took the paper wordlessly and then stared at it for a few moments. Then it hit her. Two sentences one next to the other that explained almost everything.

_Son of calamity in danger. Yet protected._

It was talking about Sephiroth's 'angel'. She leaped out of her chair and nearly ran in the direction of Sephiroth's chamber. Gast was left to stare blankly after her, wondering what in the world had gotten into his lover. Later he would chalk it up to her being an Ancient who felt the Planet's panic, but for now, he could only stare at the ajar door Ifalna forgot to close.

It took her most of the walk and some serious thinking about potential danger of getting caught to slow down her brisk pace. And yet she had found herself in front of the metal hydraulic doors all too soon. Taking one last steadying breath to regain her composure, she knocked on the door politely.

She got no answer. Which was odd, Sephiroth usually invited her in as soon as she knocked. Then again, she doubted he would be awake at one AM. Still, she knocked again, this time with a bit more force. Soon enough she heard a tinny pitter-patter of bare feet on tiles.

"Come in."

Needing no further prompting, Ifalna swiped the access card she forgot to return to Gast. As soon as she stepped into the room, she almost flung herself back out. The air in the room was enough to make her choke. It wasn't because of the smell or anything physical, but the oppressive aura brimming with unrestrained power lingered even after the threat had passed. And strangely enough, Sephiroth wasn't in the least perturbed by the frightening creature that left it.

"Miss Ifalna?" Sephiroth came to stand in front of the frightened woman. She looked like a deer caught in headlights of a speeding car. What was she afraid of? She wasn't even looking at him, just staring wide eyed at the room. Sephiroth turned around and tried to pinpoint what she was looking at to make her so afraid. But his best guess was the bed he crawled out of. Confused and getting a little anxious himself he tugged at her long dress.

"Miss Ifalna, are you alright? What are you scared of?" Sephiroth pulled on her dress a bit harder when she stayed still. Then she suddenly fell on her knees and clutched the child's shoulders in a death grip.

"Sephiroth, was you 'angel' by any chance here recently?" Eyes wide, Ifalna barely stopped her voice from shaking. The silver haired boy tilted his head in confusion and confirmed her fears with a slight nod.

"What happened? Did he hurt you?" Ifalna looked into his feline eyes that widened in surprise.

"Hurt me? Why would he do that? You said guardian angels are here to protect." Sephiroth's voice was almost accusing. Ifalna shook his shoulders gently but urgently.

"Sephiroth, I was wrong! I don't know what kind of creature he is, but he is not an angel, and he is very dangerous! You have to stay away from him!" Ifalna almost screamed at him, trying to get him to understand. But Sephiroth just glared at her and wrenched his shoulders out of her grip.

"No! He would do nothing to harm me. He was nice, and he said he would stay here with me! He said he would be back!" Sephiroth was on the verge of tears. She told him only a few days ago that the angel was his guardian and now she was telling him he was in danger? It couldn't be, his Angel was nice, and he would be back.

Ifalna was at loss. She didn't know how to make Sephiroth understand that the 'angel' was a great danger to him, and that his words of comfort were lies. He was only a child! Her face softened and she extended her hand to him.

"Maybe, but please come with me, I need your help to understand what the Planet is trying to tell me. It concerns your ange-"

Her words were cut off by the door locking shut, and the red blaring alarm.


	5. Kill without a Trace

**Author's note: It stopped raining! Huzzah! I'm out to skate so before I vanish without a trace, here, have a chapter! Later!**

* * *

Chapter 5.

His decision in place, Cloud returned from the Lifestream and manifested himself right in the control room. Unfortunately, the attendant was awake this time and apparently checking for anything out of the ordinary. Cloud was just about to knock him out when the man cursed and jumped out of his chair, looking for the phone. Confused what all the commotion was about Cloud looked at the main screen. And gaped.

It was showing the inside of Sephiroth's room, and near the entrance was a woman who looked like a splitting image of Aerith kneeling on the floor and holding the familiar silver haired child by the shoulders, telling him something urgently.

"Damn, where is that PHS- Ha!" Cloud turned around to see the man dialing somebody, no doubt to alert them of the security breach. Cloud panicked. All of his plans could be ruined if that man uttered so much as a peep. Quickly coming toward him he grabbed the man's wrist and wrenched the phone out of his hands.

"OW! What-" Was as far as he got to say before Cloud's entire arm went through his chest. The man let out a few gurgles, then fell on the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Cloud willed his hand tangible again. There, now that the crisis was averted he could continue with his plan-

The doors snapped shut and a red alarm started flashing above his head ominously. Cloud cursed. That made his plans that much harder. Now he didn't have the time to locate where the infirmary was and get to Hojo. Now he had to look for him and hope for the best. He slipped through the metal doors and ran with all his SOLIDER speed towards the main lab. The assistants and professors there were running around like headless chickens! Honestly, for people with the highest IQs on the Planet, they could be really dumb.

Another thought occurred to Cloud. If he could knock out humans just passing through them, what would happen when he walked through sensitive machinery? And maybe manifested somewhere inside? Oh how Hojo would weep for his lost data… Cloud smirked and went for a little detour.

He took out first Tsurugi walked straight to the main generator.

* * *

Both Ifalna and Sephiroth were startled when the alarm suddenly stopped. And all the other lights along with it, leaving the windowless room completely devoid of light.

"Sephiroth?" Ifalna called to the dark.

"I'm here." She turned to the direction of the voice and saw a faint green glow of his eyes. Normally the light in his eyes was barely detected but when they were the only source of the light in the entire room they seemed to glow like fireflies.

"What happened Miss Ifalna?" He asked as he steered her towards the bed and pulled her to sit down with him.

"I don't know, but I think the Dan- I mean, your angel has something to do with it." There was no doubt that he had. She could hear the Planet screaming _Danger_ at her, but not because she couldn't hear it well, it was because it was afraid the Danger would hear it.

"Why?"

"I'm not sure." Ifalna admitted. "The Planet didn't tell me what he wanted."

"What did it tell you?" Ifalna looked at the child's glowing eyes. Finding no anger but only curiosity she handed the completely crumpled paper to him. For a few minutes he just read and reread it. Then he turned to Ifalna.

"Miss Ifalna, who is the 'Calamity'?"

Ifalna was a little surprised he didn't know. Didn't she ever tell him about it? "The calamity is the alien, a monster who appeared on our Planet almost 2000 years ago. I can feel it's presence around this facility, but I can never pinpoint where. It is a devious creature who seeks to destroy the Planet, but can't be killed. That is why the Cetra, my ancestors, sealed it away, so it couldn't harm anybody."

"What was it called?"

"The Cetra merely called it the Calamity from the Skies, but I believe the scientists here call it 'Jenova'." Ifalna nearly spat out the last word.

"But… That's my mother's name."

"What?!" Ifalna nearly yelled at him. But then such pain shot through her very soul she screamed.

* * *

_Well, you weren't hard to find._

After cutting off the main power supply he sliced and diced through the wires and anything that looked even remotely like a computer he sheathed his sword and let the scientists stumble around in the dark looking for flashlights. When he found a nice secluded corridor he took a deep breath and focused.

One of the interesting things he found out was that if he concentrated hard enough, he could see a little sphere of the Lifestream's strings within every human. Also, his very being appeared to be poisonous to that hank of strings because all he had to do was pass his hand through it and it would flee in fright back to the Lifestream, leaving its host an empty shell. In other words, he had the power to kill with a single touch.

It was also interesting that he could feel Jenova's presence nearby. She was held here in the lab somewhere. Cloud itched something terrible to go there and destroy the corpse, rip it to shreds and devour her soul. If she even had one. But instead he took a deep breath and calmed himself. He couldn't do anything to her, especially in this state. If he had a body, then maybe he could try it, but this way he was too vulnerable to her advances. So he continued towards his original goal: finding Hojo. Oh, his blood boiled in excitement just at the thought of seeing fear in those rat's eyes. A quick death would be too kind for him. No, he would make him scream, scream as he did, scream and writhe and beg, but there is no mercy for that man. He might just resurrect him so he could kill him over and over again…

Cloud was so occupied with his bloodlust he didn't feel his eyes bleed to poison green and his pupils slit like a cat's. But the Planet noticed and screamed in fright. It screamed so loudly Cloud reflexively covered his ears and gritted his teeth.

_'What the Hell?'_

He hadn't heard the Planet utter so much as a _peep _the whole time he was here, and now it won't stop screeching at him? What the Hell indeed! And it wasn't even words; it was just screaming its metaphorical head off. Cloud growled and rubbed his forehead. Why wouldn't it SHUT UP?!

As soon as he finished that thought the screaming stopped. Unknowingly to him, his eyes also reverted to his normal glowing blues. The Planet was still wary, but it managed to avert the crisis. What crisis, Cloud didn't know, and the Planet wasn't telling. Cloud growled again. Completely abandoning his previous plans he closed his eyes and let the familiar feeling of fading wash over him. When he opened his eyes he was once again standing in the field of flowers.

"So you _are_ here! Why the fuck have you sent me back? Answer me!" Cloud yelled towards the misty white sky. Unsurprisingly, he got no answer. Nearly insane with rage he took out First Tsurugi and swung it around menacingly.

"Fine! If you won't come to me and talk nicely, guess I'll just have to force the answers out of you!" Cloud lifted his sword and made a motion of cutting into the earth below.

"STOP!" His hands froze halfway through the swing. That voice… No, it couldn't be. Cloud stood frozen like a statue with his eyes wide in shock. He didn't dare turn around, to see his last dreams turned to ashes. But, just maybe, she was real.

With almost robotic movements Cloud lowered the sword, but clutching the handle in a death grip, and turned around. He almost cried out loud when he saw the girl standing there. She was just like he remembered her, five centuries ago, he pretty chestnut curls in a high ponytail, her green eyes wide under her long lashes. She still wore that pink dress with the red bolero jacket. She was just as he remembered her.

"A-Aerith." The girl in question tilted her head in confusion.

"Ancient from memories. Shape that you recognize." Cloud's heart just about broke when he realized what he was looking at WAS just an illusion. The butchered sentences spoken by the voice which he missed so much didn't belong to the girl he was seeing. Rather, they belonged to the second most hated woman in his existence. Gaia.

"Well take that shape off. I can't stand looking at you." Cloud barked out, unable to look into the eyes he now knew wouldn't reflect the girl he remembered. Exactly as he remembered her, because she was just a mask for the Planet, pulled from the farthest corners of his mind where he stashed his most cherished memories.

"Guardian wants talk. Gaia answer." Gaia ignored his complaint and cautiously edged closer. She specifically chose this shape because she suspected the warrior couldn't harm the girl, even when he knew it wasn't really her.

"So now I'm Guardian, huh? Right, first things first, why the Hell did you send me back?"

It took Gaia a few seconds to process the words properly. "I tell you cannot come here. Poison of Calamity. Guardian attack. You turn into danger. No choice left. We have to save ourself."

"Yeah, by looping me back into the past! And why here? This is even before I was born!" Cloud snorted.

"A world from your memories. Mirrors what you remember. Everything from memories." Gaia soothed with Aerith's voice. Cloud hated to admit it, but it was working. He had missed that voice so much…

"Wait, what do you mean 'Poison of Calamity'?" Cloud jerked to look at the Goddess' borrowed face.

"Calamity in you. Poison to us. Son of Calamity trapped. Now is free."

"You call that freedom?! That's a prison even worse than whatever you put him into before!" Cloud raged. Then he wondered just what possessed him to start defending _Sephiroth _of all people.

"Calamity here. Her son near. Though not yet corrupted. You kill them. Then the world safe." Her words made a strange amount of sense. He tried that before though. With him in this state, Jenova posed too much of a threat and Sephiroth was still a child.

"Yeah, but you're missing one important detail: I'm a ghost, incorporeal, I've been unbelievably lucky she hasn't sensed me yet!"

"You need wait. You not yet here. Not on this world." Okay, that didn't make the _least _bit of sense.

"Whatever, I'm done talking to you. I have things I need to do." Although it wouldn't have made any difference he turned his back on her and faded out of the Lifestream as he walked. Only when he was completely gone had Gaia dared to let out a sigh of relief, feeling like she had just avoided another catastrophe.

* * *

Ifalna snapped to attention when she felt the feeling of relief wash over her. She knew immediately it had to do with the Planet and the Danger it had been screaming about. She didn't remember anything after passing out in Sephiroth's room and then waking in her own with Gast hovering over her in worry. Apparently there had been an intruder in the lab that had destroyed nearly everything right under their noses.

But what scared them the most was that there were three people dead. And two of them didn't have a single scratch on them. One had been the man in the control room. Another was a lab assistant who was unfortunate enough to get in the way of whatever monster destroyed the lab. The third one was also a lab assistant, though his cause of death protruded from his back in the form of a metal pole.

That had been yesterday. Now the entire facility was basically under a lockdown and she couldn't even sneak out to see how Sephiroth was doing. The guards were ordered to be on constant alert, the security measures doubled and everyone was on edge. It didn't help in the least that Professor Hojo was still in a coma and showing no signs of waking up anytime soon.

To add on to her pile of miseries she had been feeling sick since yesterday and threw up two mornings in a row. Ifalna chalked it up to stress, but that didn't make her stomach any less queasy. It was made worse that the Planet had been silent from the moment she woke up. Ifalna had no idea what was going on with the new threat Sephiroth's 'Angel' posed, but even though the Planet didn't speak it was very hard to keep something in a shared mind private, thus Ifalna could feel Planet's fear and anxiousness as well as her own.

But now the Planet was breathing a little easier. Ifalna considered taking a trip to the Lifestream to ask the Planet what happened but thought against it. The last thing she needed was the Planet thinking she took too much interest in the newcomer. If the Planet thought her aligned with somebody it considered dangerous, then she wouldn't be able to do anything to help Sephiroth.

Who knew what the newcomer wanted from him? For all she knew, he could have wanted to take control of the boy before Jenova could. It was also possible he simply wanted to kill him, but then why would he lull him into a false sense of security? If he had the power to kill without even leaving any trace on the body, why beat around the bush?

**Maybe he just wants to help him.**

Ifalna would have liked very much to believe it. But powerful entities like him rarely did something out of goodness of their nonexistent hearts. Even the Planet, though it knew compassion and comprehended love on some level, was often callous and borderline cruel. If the angel wanted to help Sephiroth, then he most likely expected something in return. It was what Ifalna feared the most. That was why she swore she would do everything in her limited power to stop this newcomer, and at the very least help Sephiroth.

She briefly wondered when she started sounding so maternal.

* * *

The bed was hard and cold. It always was, except that one time when he was tucked in. By that angel. His guardian angel. Who Miss Ifalna first said was there to protect him, only to take it all back, proclaiming his angel posed a great danger to him, right before the alarm went off. And then everything was shut off. He could see in the dark well enough but when Miss Ifalna screamed and fell unconscious, he feared there was indeed something in the dark that had come to harm him, something even he couldn't see.

Cradling the fallen woman's head on his lap he was tense and outwardly ready to fight anything that dared to jump out of the dark and attack them. But inwardly his heart was beating fast and his chest was tight with dread. He could barely stop his shaking by clutching his fists in the Ancient's long hair. His heart skipped a beat and his breathing stopped every time he heard even the faintest sound, which was all too often with his enhanced hearing.

He remembered how he wanted his angel to come. He was strong and powerful and he could save them. But he never came. Sephiroth didn't know how long he had stayed in that dark room worrying that Miss Ifalna wouldn't wake up, trying to discern every shape and movement in the small dark room. All he knew was that it had been far too long.

He remembered how he tensed and shut his eyes when the lights suddenly turned back on. He remembered how his heart nearly stopped when there were footsteps and then banging on the door. He had looked at the door in fright, fearing what he would see.

It had been Professor Gast, who had cast one look at him and then immediately dived for the woman on the floor. With a brief question of his health that he didn't get a chance to answer, he ran out with Miss Ifalna in his arms, the doors closing behind him.

Sephiroth just sat there in the same position for what seemed longer than the time he spent in the dark. But it must have been long because the next thing he remembered was the lights shutting down again. He almost panicked that there was another power breach but when he saw the glowing digits of his digital clock he figured it was just nighttime. Feeling downcast, but not letting it show on his face, he crawled into the bed and wound the covers around him in a makeshift cocoon.

Another small eternity passed and he still couldn't sleep. He still twitched whenever he heard even a shuffle of feet outside the door. The bed was cold and uncomfortable as usual but it normally didn't bother him. He didn't know it but he had a small shock over the whole fiasco. Hojo always preached how he was supposed to be above base human reactions, and going into shock had been one of them. So Sephiroth only knew he was cold and the dark was frightening, and he only wished the lights would turn on already.

So when he felt a hand on his shoulder he jumped up in fright and let out a quiet scream. He sat up so abruptly he got tangled in the sheets. For a brief moment he thought it was a monster who wanted to kill him and he had to get it off, he had to run and-

"Shh, calm down, it's me." Sephiroth barely registered the words but the voice that uttered them had him frozen and looking for the owner. When he spied a pair of sky blue eyes glowing in the dark he just threw his arms around the angel's neck and buried his face in the other's chest.

There was a hand petting his head and a deep pleasant voice whispering comforting words. But all that really mattered to Sephiroth was that his Guardian Angel was here and that he would be fine, that everything would be okay.

Cloud for his part kept softly whispering and even started to rock back and forth gently. Truthfully, he was shocked out of his mind when Sephiroth flung himself at him and clung like his life depended on it. He remembered the children of his friends who he raised had acted similarly after a nightmare. But this was Sephiroth! The one and the same that was colder than a marble statue and just as emotionless. Then again, that was what he would become. Right now, he was just a frightened child in need of comfort.

_I wonder if anyone had held him like this in the past. Probably not._

It was no wonder he turned out the way he did. Being held in a lab and cruelly experimented upon, there were only two ways to remain sane. One was to cling to any source of warmth and comfort, like he had done when he was a test subject with Zack. He didn't remember much from those times, but he remembered his friend's arm encircling him and calming his shaking. Much like he held Sephiroth now.

The other way was what Sephiroth had done the first time. Withdraw completely, barricade himself away from any unnecessary human contact and forget about comfort completely. It made bearing the pain easier, but that way both joy, love, pain and hate, everything was dulled over the years and you were eventually left completely emotionless. It was what Cloud had nearly done when his friends started dying around him, leaving him alone in the world. But he managed to pull himself out of that rabbit's hole and allowed himself to care for the legacy their friends trusted him with: their children.

Cloud remembered fondly the times when he was called 'Uncle Cloud', a guardian who was a constant source of stories and interesting teachings. Some children had been orphaned at young age, much like Denzel, and Cloud was always there, caring for them like they were his own. But he was more of a guardian and a parent figure, not really somebody who could be called 'Father'. Denzel was the only one who called him that, and even then it was because he didn't know his real parents. Tifa had been 'Mom', because the word 'Mother' sounded so bitter, he said. Cloud understood, and cared for him, just as he did for Denzel's children, and their children.

It also hurt that much more when he was forced to watch them grow old and die while he stood by unchanging.

Sephiroth's breathing had evened out some time ago, and his expression relaxed. Cloud was almost startled to see Sephiroth actually look his age. He always wore that serious expression it was far too easy to forget he wasn't yet eight. From what he remembered he had to wait at least twenty minutes before it was safe to move him. He learned the hard way that once the child was woken, even after being put to sleep from a nightmare, all Hell would break loose. And since Sephiroth was a very light sleeper… Yeah, better be still.

Cloud looked around the small room. It was dark, but with how much Mako he had in him he could see even in the complete darkness just as well as he could in the daylight. For some reason it saddened him to see the room so… bare. Even when he still lived with Denzel and Marlene and it was a challenge to simply survive, it wasn't unusual to nearly step on some toy on the floor or one of Marlene's stray drawings.

_That bastard Hojo probably didn't want him to have any because it would make him 'childish'._

Cloud itched to go hunt Hojo down and rip him apart. Gaia had stopped him the first time, though he had no idea why, but Hojo wasn't getting out of this mansion alive if Cloud had anything to say about it. Maybe he would even stuff his not yet dead body in a tube of Mako to give him a taste of his own medicine. Maybe cut open without sedatives, or-

He really needed to stop thinking about mauling people while he had a child on his lap. The last thing he needed was for Sephiroth to detect his homicidal mood and think it was directed towards him. Yeah, Cloud didn't want to even think about the chaos that would cause. Looking at the clock to confirm that twenty minutes had indeed passed he shifted the sleeping bundle and laid him on the bed. Once again he tucked him in and ruffled his hair just slightly. Assured that the child was deeply asleep, he sat at the foot of the bed and leaned his back against the wall.

Now all he had to was wait until morning.

* * *

"Please Gast, he must he frightened and confused all by himself! How would you feel if you had to be alone in the dark with and unconscious person? At least let me see him to assure him I'm alright!"

"Ifalna, you know it was risky when there were regular security measures, now it's nearly impossible! And we don't even know if that 'monster' is still here. You saw yourself what it can do!" Gast stood his ground.

Ifalan sighed. The man was a stubborn as a mule, and he wasn't budging. It didn't help that he had been the one to examine the dead bodies of the assistants. Physically there was nothing wrong with them. It was as if their hearts just decided to stop beating, and not even like a cardiac arrest, they just… stopped. Gast didn't have an explanation and with Hojo's state as it was, he couldn't ask for a second opinion either. What disturbed Gast the most was that even Phoenix Down didn't work. Whatever killed them killed them for good.

"I'm sorry love, but I cannot let you see him. Besides, he is safe. There are two SOLIDERs posted at the entrance and their orders are to defend him at all cost."

"So he's a prisoner. He's just a child Gast! Alone and probably scared! And if this 'monster' decides to attack, it's invisible and can kill without even leaving a trace! And I think he knows what this monster is, and he doesn't even realize 'who' it is! I just-"

"Wait, he knows? Knows what?" Ifalna immediately wished she had kept her mouth shut. But Gast was looking at her expectantly and after spewing such interesting tidbit of information and she knew he would pry her for an answer if he didn't-

"You mean that man Sephiroth saw was real?!"

-figure it out on his own… Ifalna didn't know what to say so she just nodded.

"What do you know of this?" Gast looked at her a bit suspiciously. Ifalna just sighed again and sat down in a nearby chair.

"Only what the Planet has been telling me. Remember when I woke up and that paper that I wrote? That was basically all. But what worries me the most is that the Planet is _afraid_ of him. It holds him a more dangerous threat than Jenova. I don't know what he is, but it seems he's targeting Sephiroth. I don't think he's harmed him in anyway, but I don't know what he is planning."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"And what could you have done? Even I am helpless against something I can't see, only sense. Apparently the only one able to see him is Sephiroth." Ifalna nearly barked out. Goddess, why was she so unstable as of late?

Gast looked down to his lap. He appeared to be in deep thought for a few moments. "Alright. I can get you in. Since Hojo is in a coma I'm technically in charge of the lab now. But please, put on some different clothes and a lab coat."

"Why?"

"It will raise less suspicion. Those guards have to eventually report to Hojo and that way we can say that it's a normal medical check-up." Gast already dug out one of his lab coats and handed it to her.

Ifalna readily took the coat and almost ran to her own closet. She pulled out a purple pencil skirt one of the female researchers gave her two weeks ago and a long sleeved blue shirt. Ifalna made a mental note to thank the woman what she saw her again. What was her name again? Ah, Stacey Rayleigh.

Ifalna quickly adorned the clothes and threw the lab coat over her shoulders. Being extra cautious she tied her waist long hair in a high pony tail. She gave Gast a brief nod, and they were out the door.

* * *

**AN: Anyone recognize who Ifalna is talking about? C'mon, didn't any of you play 'Before Crisis'?**


	6. Unexpected Events

**Author's note: I didn't want to post this one so soon, but since it's the fourth of July I figured I can bend the rules a bit. Now I'm off to drown in coke and vine and stuff myself full of my mom's lasagna. Toodles!**

* * *

Chapter 6.

Sephiroth couldn't remember the last time he had felt like this. He wasn't even sure if he had ever in his life felt like this. He wasn't even sure if he knew what that feeling was, so he settled for 'content'. He was sitting on the bed with a textbook on his propped up knees and leaning against Cloud's arm.

Cloud. He almost felt giddy at that. His angel had a name! A smile stretched across his face unbidden. That was another thing that proved his angel was real. Truly and honest to Goddess real. Sephiroth remembered how surprised he felt when he woke up and found his angel at the foot of the bed. His angel had been leaning against the wall, one elbow resting on a propped up knee, head leaned upward and eyes closed. He presented a perfect picture of serenity and Sephiroth poked him in the arm gently, just to make sure he really was there.

But before he could reach the sleeping spirit a hand grabbed his wrist faster than he could see it. He was mortified that was all it took him to squeak. Yes, Sephiroth, Hojo's prized experiment and the closest thing to perfection anyone can imagine had _squeaked_. Needless to say he was appalled with himself.

In his embarrassment he hadn't noticed a flicker of horror in the angel's eyes and his other hand steadily pulling away from the sword on his back. Sephiroth didn't know it, but he had been a hair's breath away from being split in half. As it was, he continued trying to hide his blush, completely unaware of his near demise.

After that little incident, and after Sephiroth had sworn the Angel on his sword that he would never tell anyone with a soul what had happened, they had settled on the bed comfortably, Sephiroth studying and the angel looking into space. But it was alright, his very presence had a calming effect on Sephiroth and he wasn't much of a talker. The silence stretched on for some time before Sephiorth piped up.

"Do angels have names?"

The angel in question raised an eyebrow. "What made you ask that?"

Instead of verbally answering, Sephiroth held up a book he was reading. The title read _A System of Logic by John Stuart Mill. _Cloud had to admit he was a bit surprised Sephiroth was able to read such a complex book.

"It says here that a proper name is a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about. Therefore, you should have a name. If you already have a name, would you tell me? It gets a bit tiring calling you 'Angel' all the time." Cloud wasn't sure how he had gotten curious about his name from reading a book about principles of inductive reasoning (yes, he read the book, he had an eternity at his disposal after all) but supposed the silverette was right.

"Yeah, I have a name."

"Well?" Sephiroth prompted.

"Cloud." That made Sephiroth look at him funny.

"You're named after a mass of condensed moisture?" Cloud wasn't sure if he should feel insulted or amused at Sephiroth's innocent sounding question. He settled for amused.

"Didn't you know? Angels come from the sky, and there is little more than clouds there." He was seriously struggling to keep the smirk off his face.

"Really? I thought angels come from the Promised Land, like Miss Ifalna told me."

"And who exactly said the Promised Land isn't in the sky? When we die, only the souls go to the Promised Land, and souls have no mass. Therefore, they should be able to walk on clouds."

That made Sephiroth fall silent and his face scrunch up in deep thought. He settled on the bed with his legs crossed, his chin in his hands and elbows propped at the knees, the book forgotten in his lap. It made him look so positively childish Cloud really had to cover his mouth with his hand to stifle his laugh. When he realized that he almost laughed, he was startled. When was the last time he had been able to laugh so freely?

_Decades ago._ Maybe even longer. Even before he was flung back in time so violently, all he had to offer was a slight upturn of his lips, a gesture barely fit to be called a smile. Even those were rare. As the years passed his reasons to smile had seemed less and less, until he had almost forgotten how to smile, much less laugh. And here he was now, in the basement levels of the most hated place on the Planet, sitting on the bed with his most hated enemy, laughing over his tries to look contemplative. Cloud decided the whole time travel thing had made him certifiably insane. That was the only rational explanation. Oh wait, that was probably a paradox.

He was so immersed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the little figure shifting towards him until he had a noseful of silver hair and the owner of said hair leaning on his shoulder. For a moment he was so stupefied he forgot that physical contact made him wary. But Sephiroth's posture was so relaxed and so non threatening that he felt no urge to move away or shove him off. It was weird, but also comfortable. Cloud chalked it up to him being so deprived of non threatening human contact that he let his cheek rest on the top of the silver fluff.

They sat like that for a while, the silence only broken by the soft flaps of a page being turned. But it was disturbed when Cloud abruptly lifted his head and strained his ears. Sephiroth noticed the action and turned his head inquisitively towards Cloud.

"What is it?"

"Someone's coming."

* * *

Gast led Ifalna down the familiar corridor. Even though she was more acquainted with that particular passage than the man in front of her, she had to keep up the guise of the assistant. Ifalna felt more than saw that they were approaching their destination. That aura of power she had felt when she had last visited Sephiroth was there again, though much, much stronger than before. Ifalna almost faltered in her step when she realized what it meant: the Angel was there.

But what also surprised her was that it didn't feel as oppressive as before. Even when she strained her ears to hear the Planet, all she heard was humming. Not as carefree or as content as before the whole Danger shebang, but humming none the less. It gave Ifalna some courage in facing this Angel of Sephiroth's.

"We're here for a medical check-up." Gast showed the guards hid ID card to the two SOLIDERs guarding the door. One of them took the card and inspected it, looked at Gast and then at his buddy, before finally deciding to unlock the hydraulic doors. Before he could swipe the security pass there was a distinct ring of a PHS.

Gast cursed mentally. Of all the times for his phone to ring, this was probably the worst. Casting an apologetic look to the Third class SOLIDERs he picked up.

"Hello… Yes this is Professor Gast speaking… He's awake?!... Yes, I'll be there immediately." Gast snapped his PHS shut and looked at Ifalna.

"I've just received information that Professor Hojo has awoken from his coma. I trust you will be able to do the examination yourself."

"Don't worry professor, I'll manage." Ifalna smiled to assure him. Gast nodded at her one last time and returned the way he came. The two guards looked at Ifalna suspiciously for a moment and then swiped the pass.

"Knock twice when you're done, we'll let you out." The other one said and Ifalna smiled at him before walking into the chamber, completely missing the way he blushed, or how his comrade smirked at him.

Unfortunately, she also didn't notice the third SOLIDER standing at the entrance of the room, scrutinizing her, nor the way the Planet had suddenly fallen silent. She only felt cold shivers pass all over her skin but she ignored them, choosing to focus on the child currently sitting at the desk with a book. Ifalna smiled.

"Hello Sephiroth." A little silver head shot up almost in alarm and turned to a look of horror just as Ifalna felt something cold and metallic press against her upper back, exactly over her heart. She froze still as a statue as she felt shivers all over her body form the malicious aura directly behind her.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand." Ifalna could only let out a whimper as she felt the cold metal object push a little more harshly into her back. Her voice was rendered useless with fright and she didn't dare turn her head around even an inch for the fear of being skewered. Luckily for her, the silver haired child jumped from the chair he was sitting on and ran to whoever was behind her. In a moment of panic she nearly yelled at him to stop and to run but he beat her to the punch.

"Cloud, stop it, that's Miss Ifalna! She's the lady I told you about." Almost instantly the cold feeling of metal disappeared from her back and only then did Ifalna dare to breathe again. Slowly, almost robotically, she turned around, fearing what she would see. The sight she was greeted with was exactly the opposite of what she expected.

There stood a man. A man with hair that reminded her of cocobo's feathers, clad in a SOLIDER jumper, baggy pants, and weird hip-cape around his side. He also had a motif of a wolf on his left shoulder guard. But it wasn't his appearance that threw her for such a loop. Well, not entirely at least. It was that he held a sword as long as she was tall and at least three times as heavy in one hand, and patting the hair of the small child who was clutching his pant leg with the other.

She supposed the fact that there were two black wings protruding from his back wasn't supposed to be as surprising as it was.

Ifalna honestly didn't know whether to feel frightened or reassured. She settled for wary. The aura of hatred and ill intent had dissipated around him. Another thing that disappeared was his wings. They simply became transparent before fading altogether. Ifalna couldn't help herself: she stared. Sephiroth's angel wasn't anything like she pictured him.

The angel's eyes suddenly flicked to hers and she almost took a step back when she saw the blue glow they were immersed with. Definitely SOLIDER trademark. But she remembered Sephiroth once saying he had eyes like his, with slitted pupils. As far as she could see he had pupils as any other normal… SOLIDER.

"Are you Aerith's mother?" His deep voice threw her for a loop, and then she managed to process what he asked.

"Mother? I don't have any children." She barely stopped her voice from stuttering. As soon as she said it the Angel narrowed his eyes and looked at her a bit too intently. It took all of her willpower not to squirm. She tried holding his stare but it only sent another wave of violent shivers up her spine. Still, she had a feeling if she did so much as a step back she would have that giant sword pointed at her again. Just as suddenly his expression softened and a soft languid smile stretched across his lips.

"Ah right, I guess you don't know. You're pregnant." Those words hit Ifalana like a sledge hammer. Pregnant. She was pregnant. With a child. Gast's child. In the background she could hear Sephiroth speak and the voice of the Angel answer something, but it was all meaningless noise to her. She was pregnant. She didn't know if she should feel overjoyed or frightened out of her wits. On one hand she was going to have a baby! A little bundle of joy she always wanted to have! But on the other hand, what if Hojo heard of it? She feared that man almost more than she used to fear the creature in front of her!

"Are you alright?" A voice asked from too close for comfort. Ifalna forced her eyes to focus and almost fell on her behind when she saw pair of glowing blue eyes inches from her face. She _would_ have fallen had the man in front of her not caught her. As it was, he helped her regain balance and gently stirred her to the bed. As conflicted Ifalna was, she just let herself be stirred and pushed to sit on the bed. She felt the bed dip beside her and looked to see Sephiroth looking up at her curiously.

"How can you tell? She's not showing yet." Sephiroth asked. Ifalna had to admit, she was curious as well.

"Every living creature has inside them a current like the lifestream." Ifalna early flinched when she heard him from her other side. She hadn't even felt him sit down! "It mostly flows around itself, so it looks like a ball of strings. If I focus hard enough, I can see it. So unless Cetra naturally have two currents in them, the other one must be Ae- The child's."

Ifalna looked at him suspiciously. "Before, you called me Aerith's mother, and now you almost called the child Aerith again." She didn't miss how he tensed and looked away. "How did you know I wanted to name my daughter that?"

Instead of tensing even more or giving some similar reaction, the Angel relaxed and nearly smiled. "You could say Gaia told me."

"Gaia?"

"Don't you know? It's the Planet's name." Ifalna nearly sputtered. The Planet's name was supposed to be the ultimate secret, entrusted to only a select few who could be trusted, and yet this Angel told it to her like it was common knowledge!

"How do you know that!?" The angel just looked at her funny.

"Like I said, She told me. Though her grammar leaves much to be desired, She does know how to say what her name is." Ifalna had to admit it was true. But still, the Plan- Gaia feared him more than she feared the Callamity and yet trusted him with her name?

"I wasn't always considered such a threat in her books, you know." For a second Ifalna feared she said it out loud. "You didn't have to ask, it is written all over your face."

Ifalna blushed and looked down. Gast always told her that she had a really expressive face but she didn't know she was that easily readable. It briefly occurred to her that she was sitting here basically chatting with the creature Planet feared. But he said She didn't fear him before…

"I guess you want to know why Gaia fears me so much." Ifalna nodded timidly. The angel took a silent Sephiroth into his lap who arranged himself into a more comfortable position and snuggled into his arms. Ifalna smiled despite herself. She was so happy for Sephiroth that he found somebody who cared for him, even though she was dubious about the wisdom of his choice. Then again, he probably wasn't even asked in the first place.

"I can't die." The angel started. "I was human once, you know. Long time ago. A human who lived too long I guess. All around me my friends grew old and eventually died. Even their children perished with time. And I haven't aged a day since… Since that day, 500 years ago."

Ifalna knew something significant happened those 500 years ago, but she doubted he would say what. It seemed that was a day he didn't remember fondly. But she was also shocked at his age. Only a few summons were as old or older than him. That qualified him as a Wise One in its own right!

"I suppose that day was the real ending of my life. When I realized how much time passed I confronted Gaia. And she said- Grr, anyway, I snapped and split her in half." Ifalna's head whirled around so fast his neck almost snapped.

"You did WHAT!?"

"Cut her in half with my sword. Anyway, she didn't like it in the least so… I guess she destroyed my body and left me like this. A ghost. I suppose I was lucky. If she really wanted me punished she would lock me up with Him. This way I'm at least free to roam once more."

Ifalna couldn't believe her ears. He spilt the Goddess in half…? Then how the Hell were they all still alive?! An event like that would have forced the Omega weapon to awaken and run to seek a new Planet! Or not even that, since what he was describing sounded like a direct attack on the Lifestream. By all rights they should have all perished without a trace! The fact that they were all here… It was a miracle! It appeared the Planet was more resilient than she thought. But it there was no damage was there a reason to be angry?

Ifalna looked at the strange man. The child on his lap apparently decided he didn't want to be quiet anymore and way asking questions the Angel looked hard pressed to answer. She had to smile. Maybe, just maybe, she could disregard all of Plan- _Gaia's _warnings and let herself get to know this spiky haired Angel. After all, we all make mistakes, don't we?

"What did you say your name was again?"

"Cloud."

* * *

Gast started seriously considering diving behind that machine for cover. Hojo had taken the news of destroyed lab and lost data with the calmness of a statue. And that was exactly what had Gast panicking. If there was one thing Gast knew from years of working for the man was that he had a ridiculously short temper and things like a destroyed lab and, Goddess forbid, lost data, set it off like no tomorrow.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN ALL THE DATA WAS LOST?!" And there it went. Hojo jumped down from the hospital bed, greasy hair flying in every direction and glasses askew. The sight would have been almost comical if Gast wasn't petrified with fear. It appeared his fears were well founded because at that moment Hojo began spewing such curses and swearing that it would have made a sailor cover his ears. And that was before the furniture started flying.

Gast decided to take cover along with a nurse behind that machine after all. He didn't understand how the Hell a man of Hojo's stature could pick up objects twice as heavy as him and throw them on the other side of the room. He just hoped the Professor didn't try and experiment on himself…

…the nurse next to him pulled out a gun. He almost yelled at her and asked her if she was in her right mind but then he noticed the darts she loaded the gun with. A tranquilizer gun. Upon closer observation Gast recognized the design. Ever since the massive breakout incident of monsters a few years back all of the support staff was required to carry one around, loaded. The incident didn't repeat itself, at least not in as huge numbers as before, but the guns were still a requirement. Still, those darts were for monsters three times the size of a normal human.

"Don't you think that's a bit too much?" He asked her hesitantly.

Something big, heavy and definitely made of metal clashed with their wall of protection.

"I'm afraid it won't be enough." She said and suddenly stood up, gun aimed at the mad scientist. She fired, once, twice. Then there was silence. Deafening silence. Gast heard a dull, fleshy thump. Only then did he dare to rise from his position and peer beyond the machine. The sight of the once impeccable infirmary had him gaping. It looked like a rampage of monsters went through the room! All the machinery was torn apart, wires that crackled with electricity sticking out of them. The beds were shredded, the curtains separating them in no better state. The instruments and anything else breakable was scattered in all corners of the room. Gast swore the fist shaped dents in the walls weren't there before.

And in the middle of it all lay Hojo, face down and unconscious, two red tipped darts sticking out of his neck.

Gast made a mental note to give the nurse a raise. And maybe tell the Turks to recruit her.

* * *

Ifalna couldn't believe how relaxed she felt in the presence of the man who was supposedly the biggest threat to the Planet since Jenova. He was a man of few words and had more secrets than Gaia herself, but Ifalna managed to make him relax with warm words and pleasant demeanor. The fact that Sephiroth decided to nod off on his lap probably had a hand in that as well. But any question pertaining to personal information and his past was met with a glare or a turn of the head. Knowing a sensitive topic when she stumbled upon one, Ifalna quickly redirected her questions elsewhere.

The main topic somehow ended up being Jenova. Although she didn't know how Cloud knew so much about the Calamity she had a feeling it was actually firsthand knowledge, and not something the Planet told him. It nagged at her until she finally managed to blurt out the question that had been bothering her ever since the shower incident.

"What do you want with Sephiroth?" Smooth, Ifalna, real smooth. It was as if she had never heard of tact!

The angle didn't seem offended at least. Instead he tilted his head and looked at her a bit oddly. "To tell the truth, I don't know." He paused and looked at the child sleeping on his lap.

"I'll be honest, when I protected him in that shower, if I had known it was him I would have probably thought twice before barging in. Make no mistake; I know full well, maybe even better than the Planet what he will become, and what Jenova and Hojo plan to do with him. When I first came back, I went here with full intent to kill him, to stop the disaster before it even began. But I couldn't." His eyes seemed to mist, and he looked like he was somewhere far away, somewhere nobody should have to be. Ifalna opted to stay silent and waited patiently for him to continue.

"You saw him. He's just a child! There are many things to be said about me, and none of them very good, but I haven't stooped so low yet to kill a child. And… He reminds me of someone. Someone that was very dear to me once. And just the thought of killing him makes me almost ill."

Ifalna listened, but she could scarcely believe. Even though she had accepted that Cloud was still human on some level, and _was _a human once, she still had trouble imagining him as anything but Sephiroth's Guardian Angel. She had barely gotten over her impression that he was a threat to the Planet, imagining he had children of his own was a bit hard. Only then she noticed he was talking in past tense the whole time.

"Was?" She asked tentatively.

"He died a long time ago."

Ifalna bit her lip. She needed just another proverbial puzzle piece… "Was he… your son? Before you…"

"Yes." Ifalna nodded in sympathy. No child should die before their parent. Her hand went to her own, yet unborn child. The prospect of being a mother was both elating and frightening. But she knew one thing: she would do anything for her child.

"You remind me of her." Cloud spoke again. "She was like you, she could warm even the coldest of hearts, and her own heart was too big for her own good. She saved us all, and it cost her life. And all I could do was stand by and watch. I couldn't help her."

Ifalna didn't fail to notice the change of pronouns.

"She loved flowers. She said that love made them grow. She would always smile when she tended to them. And my biggest fear is that I'll forget her smile." Cloud could barely keep his voice from cracking. Aerith belonged to the times when his memories were so shaky he wasn't even sure which were his own and which were Zack's. When he saw the Planet wearing her face, he was gripped by a cold fear. It was a face pulled from his memories. What if it wasn't hers then? What if he had already forgotten small details? He no longer remembered the exact length of her hair, or if her ribbon was faded red or pink. For somebody with photographic memory, the fact that he forgot even details as small and seemingly insignificant as those frightened him beyond words. What if he started forgetting others?

And his memories were tampered with before, who is to say they couldn't be altered again? He feared it more than anything else.

There was suddenly a hand on his shoulder. "If you loved her as much as I think you did, then you will never forget her. Even if the little pieces fade away with time, the big picture will always remain. And your love for her will always be preserved… in here." The hand moved to tap his chest, right over his still heart. He looked up at the eyes that were exactly the same as the girl he remembered. He took the hand on his chest and held in his own. A smile crept over his face.

"You really are so much like her." He mumbled and gently squeezed her hand. "Thank you."

Ifalna smiled warmly at him. "You're welco-" Her words were cut off by a pair of soft lips covering her own. Ifalna was so shocked she didn't even notice the Angel's hands reach behind her and put something in her hair. She just closed her eyes and when she opened them again, Sephiroth was sleeping on her lap and Cloud was nowhere in sight.

* * *

An: Do you hate me yet? ^_~

And since we found out that the Planet's name was in AC, I'm comparing the Planet's name with the name of God, which is supposed to be the greatest secret in the world.


	7. Ultimate Sacrifice

**Author's rant: You all Have Red Dog Krim to thank for this chapter, because he apparently did a successful rain dance since there is a freaking storm out there, and I can't even peek out the window without getting soaked. It's also one hell of a headache for internet connection. Just to upload this chapter, it took me five tries that lasted around half an hour. Now, let's see how long it will take to get this chapter published!**

* * *

Chapter 7.

For a few moments, Ifalna was so shocked she could just mutely stare at the place on the bed where Cloud was seconds before. He had kissed her. Kissed her! Because… Ifalna blushed beet red when she realized just who he must have been talking about. Ifalna figured he must have been talking about his son's mother. His… wife.

Ifalna looked like a very convincing tomato. And not just from embarrassment. Because really, how do you tell an ancient spirit who even the Planet fears that you can't be with him because you are with someone else without getting either your head or that of your spouse cut off!? But then again, Sephiroth was only alive and well because he reminded Cloud of his son, at least as far as she figured. But Cloud himself admitted that he didn't know what he wanted from Sephiroth. So maybe, just maybe, he really only wanted to help him. But that didn't solve her dilemma. She might be safe, but she couldn't say the same for Gast. Cloud knew she must have a man to be pregnant, if he found out who…

Ifalna shook her head. She was overreacting. She seemed to be doing a lot of that since she became pregnant. But really, how farfetched it sounded that Cloud would go and murder her husband only because she reminded him of his dead wife who he had five centuries to get over?

**He didn't seem he had 'gotten over her' in the least.**

Then again, that was also true. The way he talked about her, it was as if he was blaming himself for her death. And he didn't seem very stable in the first place. Oh no… What if he was planning to take the soul of his wife from the Lifestream and put it in her body?! She had only heard of such rituals but someone of his power and knowledge could very well be able to perform it single handedly, and the Planet wouldn't be able to do anything!

Okay, now she knew she was overreacting. Damn hormones…

Her panic, though quiet, woke the boy sleeping in her arms. Sephiroth let out a large yawn and rubbed his eye with his fist, completely unaware of how cute he looked. Ifalna had to stop herself from cooing at him, knowing it would really embarrass the poor boy. But Sephiroth just looked around a few times, and then looked at Ifalna inquisitively.

"Where is Cloud?" Ifalna smiled at him a bit sadly.

"He… Had to go, but he said he would be back." Ifalna quickly assured him. A quick glance at the digital clock unfortunately told her she stayed for far longer than she was supposed to.

"And I have to go now too. I will return though, as soon as I can." Ifalna petted his silver hair one more time and then set him on the bed. Sephiroth looked down with something akin to sadness but his expression was wiped blank before Ifalna could deduce what it was. He climbed down the bed and sat at his desk, continuing his studies. Ifalna looked at him for a moment longer before knocking on the doors twice. The SOLIDER standing outside opened the door, and glanced outside as she stepped out.

"That took quite some time." He noted with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"I'm sorry, this is the first time I had to perform an examination by myself." Ifalna lied with a smile. Just as she hoped the guard nodded at her, though she could see a hint of a blush behind his helmet. Hastily, but not too quickly, she walked away, trying to stop the giggles that wanted to come out when she heard the other guard teasing his friend about her.

What a heart breaker she was. She ignored the pang of shame in her heart.

* * *

Cloud was lying in the flower field again, deep in thought. Now that he knew he could call, or at least threaten the Goddess to come he didn't feel much urgency to do so. So he laid there in the endless plains, planning his next move. Killing Hojo was still his first priority, at least until he found some way to get himself a real body. As he was, he only counted his lucky stars that Jenova was still very weak and probably didn't even sense him yet. Without a body, no mental shields would be enough to stop her from controlling him. If he ventured near enough to her, there was every chance she would sense him, and weak or not, he wasn't sure if he could escape once she got her claws in him.

It also raised the issue of Sephiroth. Even though he knew more about the boy's past than he did it still wasn't enough. He only knew Sephiroth was moved to the Midgar labs sometime before he was born. And Sephiroth was nearly eight, though he never found out the exact date of his birth that meant Cloud would have been born soon. But now, with his in this state, there was no way-

_"You need wait. You not yet here. Not on this world."_

Cloud sat up so quickly he got a brief vertigo. No way, there was absolutely no _fucking way_ it was possible.

Cloud wasn't born yet. 'Not on this world', Gaia said, did that mean… His mother was just now pregnant with him?

And yet it made a strange amount of sense. But if that theory was correct then what would happen to him once the Cloud from this timeline was born? Would some other soul inhabit the body that was once his own, or would his memory be wiped blank and he would be forced to start over, and watch everything repeat itself? No! He couldn't! Cloud gripped his head by his hair so hard he thought he would rip it all out.

He wouldn't survive having to live through everything again. Hell, he technically didn't 'survive' it the first time, not with how many times Zack and Aerith had to pull his sorry self out of the Lifestream and into the world of the living! And this time around, he might not even succeed! And the only reason he even 'succeeded' the first time was because Zack died to protect him, and Aerith died to protect the entire Planet! And even that could hardly be called a success! The Meteor still fell, and the entire world was swept by the Plague caused by the Jenova cells. Though Aerith's rain cured it, many people died from it first, reducing the Planet's population of humans to the point they were nearly facing extinction. And then there was the whole Deepground fiasco, whose maniacs killed hundreds, thousands of people trying to awaken the Omega WEAPON. It took 500 years for the human kind to repopulate the Planet again, and even after that, their number was nowhere near what it used to be before the Apocalypse.

Then it occurred to him that he could stop it. He knew what would happen, knew the events, the dates and the people responsible. But it was all useless if he was a mere infant. He was powerful now, but he lacked the corporeal body he needed to stop everything. This way only Ifalna and Sephiroth could see him, and one would die in seven years time while the other would be the one to cause the said Apocalypse.

What could he do? Cloud finally stood up and decided to at least check for himself if his theory was true. Closing his eyes, the feeling of fading washed over him and when he opened them again, he found himself in front of the Manor. Casting one long look to the Mansion, he silently promised he would be back, and headed towards where he remembered his house to be.

* * *

Eve Strife never felt welcomed in the small mountain village. She was an outsider, and no matter how many years she spent living in the village she was never considered one of them. She was fine with that, as fine as anyone could be. She once was a naïve little girl, thinking there was a bright shiny world beyond the confining home of her strict parents. So she ran away from home, looking for her bright future. Only, she never found it.

Eventually she ended up in Nibelheim, for the simple reason it was on the other side of the world from her hometown. She was lucky the villagers weren't _completely _heartless, so they offered a barely adult girl one of the abandoned houses and let her try to build a life for herself. But short of providing a roof over her head, they left her to fend for herself. Eve wasn't stupid, and she was no longer naïve as she was when she ran away from home, she understood that if she wanted to survive, she had to find a way to make money.

She was lucky that during her travel she found that crystallized Mako was very valuable, and that Nibelheim was full of natural Mako springs. But not many dared to venture there because the forests were full of monsters, wolves and even dragons. Eve wasn't one of many, and armed with only a dagger and her courage she climbed the steep mountain regularly to the Mako fountain concealed to the naked eye, where there was an abundance of the green crystals she sought. But she never ventured deeper than she had to. For some reason she couldn't explain, the deeper she went into the cave she was overwhelmed by the feelings of sadness and deep regret, and she was sure they weren't her own. She was in luck that the entrance of the Crystal Cave was covered with crystals and she didn't need to venture any further.

She sold her findings to a merchant traveler who usually came once a month bringing supplies to the village. When she first offered the crystals to him, his eyes bugged out of his head. He gave her plenty of money to last her almost a month for only a small satchel of crystals. He asked her to find more next time, but the crystals were hard to dislodge form the hard rock they grew in with only a dagger. Crystallized Mako was harder than diamonds, and occasionally grew to form a magic orb, called Materia. Those fetched even more money than the crystals.

But during winter it was hard to climb a mountain and the crystals hard to get to. And even if she found them the merchant, a man nearing his fifties, sometimes didn't even come. Winter in Nibelheim was harsh, the temperature dropping several degrees below freezing, and that's if you were lucky. But Eve was nothing if not stubborn, so she once again took her trusty dagger, put on her thickest coat, and went to brave the mountain.

She was nearly killed for her stupidity. A Nibel wolf found her and as hungry as he was, she was an easy prey. Eve never felt so scared in her entire life. But even as scared as she was, she was a fighter. During the fight she cut off a part of the wolf's nose and nearly lamed him of his front leg. But she paid a price for it. Her arms were littered with numerous bite and claw marks, and she had a deep gash on her side. Dizzy from blood loss, she fell unconscious. The last thing she saw was the wolf approaching her with his teeth bared.

She thought she was a goner.

So it came as a real surprise when she woke up in an unfamiliar house, on an unfamiliar bed with her wounds bandaged. At first she was wary, because the villagers were never quite _this _nice to her, and as far as she recalled, she never saw anyone coming to her rescue.

"Oh, you're awake!" Eve almost fell out of her bed when she saw a woman with short red hair and blood red dress with black lace on the edges. Then she recognized the woman: it was the village witch and a healer. Eve remembered that she was even more ill received than she was, though the village tolerated her better because she was the only one in the village who could use magic. Eve remembered that she once gave her a Heal Materia she found in the cave in exchange for fixing her broken ankle.

"Your injuries weren't so severe, just a minor case of blood loss and several lacerations on your arms and abdomen. If you would get up I could heal you in a minute." The woman said in a monotone, her face void of expression. To some it may have seemed like the epitome of professionalism, but to Eve she seemed like a robot. None the less, she got up and started removing the bandages from her arms, surprised to see they stopped bleeding already. The witch came with a green crystal orb Eve recognized as the Heal Materia she gave her. With a few murmurs, green light washed over her wounds and Eve could only watch in fascination as the injuries from her fight simply disappeared.

"Care to share your name?" The witch asked her. Eve bit her lip but decided she had no reason to hide it.

"Eve. Eve Strife. And yours?" She never did catch her name.

"As I'm sure you are already aware, the people of this village simply call me the Witch. But I suppose I can tell you. My name is Meta Salmhofer." Eve could have sworn she saw a hint of a smile on her face.

_Most people probably don't even bother to ask for her name._

It was a sad reality. Nobody in the village called her by her first name, keeping up the strictly professional barrier by calling her Miss Strife. For a woman they not only considered an outsider but probably feared her, she would be surprised if they even knew her name at all. It would also explain the coldness Meta displayed around her. All the people wanted to know was that she was dangerous but she had magic. Unless someone was gravely ill or wounded, they rarely came to her, preferring to go to the usual village doctor, and only coming to her when he could no longer help.

"Would you like to stay here until the storm has passed, or would you like to return home?" Meta asked as she was putting the Materia in a wooden chest at the foot of the bed.

Eve thought for a moment, and then decided. "If it's not too much trouble, I would like to stay." She asked with a small smile.

Meta seemed almost taken aback. But then she returned the smile. "It would be my pleasure."

And that was how Eve Strife became friends with Meta Salmhoffer.

The two got along pretty nicely. The village soon noticed two strange women often together and ostracized them even more. It was okay though, because they were friends. Eve would give Meta all materia she found and Meta in return never charged her treatments when she got sick or wounded.

Unfortunately, one day Meta announced that she would be going to the neighboring village, Modeoheim, for a few things she needed and wouldn't be back for at least a few days. Those were the days of the bazaar, the only times in the year during which people could restock in anything they were lacking, from clothes, every day necessaries to raw materials and furniture. It was during those days that Eve managed to make herself sick. But with Meta away, she had no choice but to go to the regular village doctor.

She was surprised when instead of their usual old doctor she was met with a man of midnight black hair with blue highlights, blue eyes that were covered by a pair of reading glasses and a charming smile. Eve wasn't sure that the blush that covered her face was from the fever.

When she asked who he was, he told her he was an associate of the current doctor, who was also away on an errand and he would be his replacement for a few days. His name was Adam Moonlit. Eve had to smile at that. Adam and Eve. Even their names matched. He awoke all of her dreams she had as a little girl, of the bright future and a loving husband. She fell in love with him and soon fell into his bed. He promised her he would take her away from the village and to his home, where they would live together. As bewitched by love as she was, Eve believed him wholeheartedly.

But all of her dreams were shattered once again when she found him gone. The usual village doctor was back and he told her Adam had returned home, because there was no reason for him to stay here anymore. Her heart was taken that day, and she never got it back. When Meta returned she found Eve in her house crying in her pillow. She barely managed to calm the distraught woman to make her tell what happened. Eve told her everything, how she was stupid enough to believe the man, and how he had left without even saying goodbye. Meta could do nothing but hold her as she cried.

A month later it seemed she was over him. The only proof that ever even existed was a beautiful red glass apple he gifted her with. Eve kept it on her bedside table, and stubbornly refused to get rid of it, no matter how many times Meta insisted she throw it away. Eve never listened to her, insisting that the apple held the last bits of her dreams and what little piece of heart Adam didn't take away. Meta didn't really understand, but she stopped trying to make Eve throw it away and settled with never mentioning it.

Eve's life seemed to return to normal. But that was before she simply collapsed in the middle of her hallway. She was lucky she invited Meta for lunch that day, and the witch was able to help. Unfortunately, she found out what caused Eve to simply collapse like that too. When Eve came to, she was on her bed and Meta sat solemnly on the foot of the bed, staring into space with a frown of her face.

"Meta, what happened? Did I pass out?" Eve rubbed her temples. She felt a bit strange in a way she couldn't put her finger on, but not really ill.

"Eve, did you sleep with that man?" 'That man' was Adam, the doctor Eve fell in love with. Meta never called him by his given name.

As expected, Eve blushed beet red and crossed her arms defensively. "Yeah, so what if I did? Is that a crime?"

Meta sighed. She really didn't know how to say this without it coming out as a shock. "Have you, um, missed your period recently?"

Eve's brows scrunched up in confusion. "Yeah, my period is pretty late this month, and last month it didn't even start. I guess it's just stress. Why do you ask?"

"You're pregnant." Let it be said tact was never one of Meta's strong points. "I'd say you're a little over a month pregnant. The dates match. I'm sorry."

Eve didn't hear anything past the 'pregnant' bit. She was shocked. Of course, she knew how the whole thing worked but it never occurred to her she might get pregnant. To her still somewhat innocent mind, children were born only to a married man and woman. That she wasn't married and had a child… Did that mean the Goddess allowed it because Adam still loved her? Did that mean that one day he would be back for her and their child? She couldn't help it. She laughed. She laughed so wholeheartedly tears started running down her cheeks. She hugged her witch friend and laughed and cried at the same time.

Meta on the other hand was as confused as one could get. She had never seen somebody shed tears while laughing. She held Eve with confusion written on her face, waiting for her to calm down so she could get an explanation. When she asked her why was she crying, Eve's smile got even wider.

"I'm just so happy! Don't you see Meta? It's a gift from the Goddess! This child… I'm having his child because the Goddess willed it so! It means he would come back! I'm so happy!" Eve said as she was wiping her tears away with her sleeve. Meta didn't understand. But then, she admitted, she never understood Eve, whose life was led by her heart. So she was just happy for her friend.

She was now full two months pregnant, and sitting in her rocking chair by the window, watching the falling rain outside. In her hands she held yarn and was knitting a little sock. She knew it was a little too early to already be making clothes for her baby, but she couldn't help it. She was just so excited that she would soon be a mom. Well, in seven months at least. To her, it seemed like forever. She didn't even protest too much when Meta forbid her from going crystal hunting, and immediately forbid her from drinking alcohol. In Nibelheim, where it was cold in summer and way below freezing in winter, everybody, from young to old drank alcoholic beverages. She, who wasn't born there, had been utterly shocked when she found out that anyone over nine years could drink alcohol, in increasing amounts as they got older.

Eve got used to that custom pretty quickly, though her alcohol tolerance was nowhere near as high as that of the natives. She didn't mind, but she firmly decided her child wouldn't be going anywhere near anything alcoholic until he or she was at least twelve! That was the age when she began drinking and it was still too early in her opinion.

He or she… She rubbed her still flat belly and looked at the faraway wall. She wondered it it would be a boy or a girl. Secretly, she wished it would be a girl. At least she knew what to do with a girl, if it turned out to be a boy there was nobody he could look up to. At least until his father came back for them. Eve giggled. Adam and Eve. Just like in the old fairy tale. The parents of all of mankind. She wondered what should she call her child then. Cain or Abel? But what if it was a girl? Wait, Eve never had any female children. Hmm, then she had to choose a different name. Maybe something from another tale? Who knew?

As deep in her thoughts as she was, Eve never noticed the strange shadow on her front door.

* * *

Cloud could feel his throat tighten as he stood in front of the all too familiar door. There, beyond that door was a person he hadn't seen since he was a teenager with shattered dreams. The person whose face he had last seen twisted in pain as the flames of Nibeheim devoured her. His mother. No, she would no longer be his mother.

Cloud took the longest possible path towards his old house. He knew he was just stalling but at least during his walk he had time to plan everything out. If his mother really was pregnant with him, and he was now a ghost, it meant that no soul inhabited the body she was carrying. Therefore, his plan was to create a paradox, to force the Planet to give him a body.

If there was no body for him to inhabit he would either be forcefully returned to the Lifestream. But since he couldn't, the Goddess, by her own laws, had to give him a body. Preferably his own, that was buried deep in the Mako in the reactor.

And to do that, he had to kill himself first.

The ultimate sacrifice he had to make to ensure the future would never happen, and to let the past that had once happened forever buried in the only place the world couldn't reach: his mind. Cloud wished there was another way, but there wasn't. Besides, if he had to just stand and watch everything happen again, he would die anyway.

He finally braved the ominous doors, and found himself in the house he had once called home. On the rocking chair was a woman whose face hurt too much to look at. Instead, he focused on her middle, and sure enough, the details faded, leaving only the shape, and two swirling bundles of the Lifestream, one in her heart, and one in her womb. That was him.

Barely able to stop his shaking, Cloud walked up to the woman that he would soon lose the right to call his mother, and finally dared to look her in the face. Her eyes were closed, her face calm, a perfect picture of serenity. One of her hands was on her flat middle, where her unborn child lay. Cloud's heart might not be beating anymore, but now it tightened so much he felt like it was being crushed. He leaned forward so his face was level with hers, his hand twitching. Before he did there was something he had to say.

"I'm so sorry."

As his hand went through her stomach, she let out a blood chilling scream and lost consciousness, while he disappeared, simply faded, because there was nothing to tie him to this world anymore.

When Meta found her it was already too late. Eve once again woke on her bed, Meta sitting next to her somberly. She asked her what was wrong, and when Meta didn't answer immediately she panicked. Tears started pouring out of her eyes. She never heard what Meta said. There was only one word that ever reached her ears.

"Miscarriage."

That was the day her heart shattered. Shattered in the hand she thought gave her biggest joy. Eve cried, she denied it with all she had left, but in the end, as Meta once again held her as she cried, she couldn't lie to herself. Her baby was gone. Wrenched from her before she even got a chance to hold it. At first she was frozen. But then, one day, she simply got out of her bed and took the glass apple that stood on her bed stand.

Still in her nightgown, she climbed the path she was so familiar with to the cave of sorrow, where grew the most valuable crystals, and there in the middle crystal, was a woman. A woman she wrongly perceived as the frozen Goddess who took her child away.

Blind with tears and rage, she threw the apple at the crystal and watched the glass shatter into thousands of little pieces, and with it shatter the last dreams and pieces of her heart that she had left. She watched it break, and the pieces fall into the smallest nooks and crannies of the crystals, never to be whole again.

But still, she could have sworn it was a man's voice she heard when she walked out of the cave.

_I'm so sorry._

* * *

_AN: I actually almost cried at the end. Don't worry, you have every right to hate me.  
_

_And since we have an entirely other history of how humans came to be form them, our regular Book of Genesis is nothing but one long fairy tale in the Final Fantasy universe.  
_

_Also, Cookies if you figure out figure out who Adam Moonlit and Meta Salmhoffer are. And who Cloud's mom got her name from. ^_~  
_


	8. Angel's Birth

**Author's note: It's still raining, and last night there was such thunder we had a power breach so I couldn't upload it yesterday. Whoever dragged me over here deserves to rot in Hell. Oh wait, it was my idea... Damn.**

* * *

Chapter 8.

_"Awaken, Gaia's Guardian. Awaken."_

Cloud could hear the words being spoken to him. Deep, but still distinctly female. He forced his eyes to open, only to close them again when all he saw was blinding white light. After a few tries his eyes adjusted and he was able to focus. Not that it did him any good, because he was completely surrounded by whiteness. Cloud forced himself not to scream. But it reminded him so much of the labs…

_"What you have done, Guardian, was the ultimate sin to be committed. We wish to hear your reasons before your punishment."_

Cloud had half the mind to whirl around looking for the source of the voice, but knew it would be pointless. Whoever he was speaking to would only show themselves when it suited them.

"I did what I had to make sure the future as I remember it doesn't happen." Cloud said loudly and clearly, yet flatly and in monotone. The last thing he needed was whoever was interrogating him to think he did it out of selfishness.

_"Nobody knows the future for certain. What you thought might happen does not justify your actions!" _A voice boomed, this time definitely male. So that meant there were more of them.

"It was necessary! I know what will happen, when the Apocalypse will happen and who is responsible! If there is even the slightest chance it's going to happen, I had to do it!" Cloud nearly screamed.

_"And you think this infant you killed will be responsible?"_ A voice, female again, but this one was different, more gentle.

"No. " Cloud grit his teeth. "That 'infant' was me. You must have noticed I had no body."

There was silence. Cloud could almost feel their shock.

_"If you are the only one who knows of this 'Apocalypse, why would you kill yourself when you claim you are the only one capable of stopping it?"_ The first voice spoke again.

"Because I can do nothing if my memory is erased and I'm stuck in a body of a helpless child. I am strong now, but without a body I cannot do much."

_"And what were you hoping to accomplish by killing yourself_?" The second voice again. Did they have strict turns on asking questions or something?

"As I cannot stay in the Lifestream, and without a mortal body as my vessel on the Planet, I was hoping I would be allowed to have my real body back." Cloud explained.

There was relative silence, only murmurs too quiet to understand floating through the air. Cloud waited with as much patience as he could muster for Them for finish their discussion. It took pretty long, even by the Lifestream standards, and Cloud had to stop his foot from tapping by the time they finished.

_"If it is really the truth you speak, very well, you will be granted permission to stay on the Planet's surface among the mortals. We ask, however, for permission to enter your mind and see if what you claim is really true." _The first female said. Cloud nodded and closed his eyes, willing his heavy mental barriers down and letting his mind open for inspection. He braced himself for the memories he knew he would now have to relive.

_Sephiroth, standing in the middle of the burning Nibelheim, turning around and disappearing. _

_WEAPONS, wreaking havoc throughout the world._

_Aerith, her hands clasped in prayer as she was impaled by the cursed sword._

_White materia, bouncing down the stones._

_The meteor falling, and Holly emerging to stop it._

_Apocalypse._

_Geostigma, sweeping through the world, taking lives with it like a Grim Reaper._

_The Remnants._

_And the final battle._

_The day of the Anniversary._

Cloud nearly staggered when he felt the unknown entity pull out of his mind with the force of a Bahamut. Still, he straightened his back and waited for the final judgment.

_"What you speak of is really the truth. Very well, Guardian, you may walk among the mortals. But remember, nothing is perfect, and nothing is eternal. Even us."_

Cloud had to raise an eyebrow at their words. "I do not believe in my death." With those words he turned and walked away, and once again, he was swept by the feeling of fading, and before he dissapeared, he though he saw a briefest flash of pink, and the metal glint of a weapon.

* * *

Sephiroth was worried. Very worried. He hadn't seen Cloud for almost a week, that day when he fell asleep on Miss Ifalna's lap. She said Cloud had to go somewhere, but that he would be back. And then Miss Ifalna went away and didn't come back yet. In fact, he hadn't seen anyone, except for the lab assistants who brought him food, but they didn't stay long enough to really talk. Sephiroth was feeling… lonely.

It was strange, and at first he had no idea what the feeling was. He was used to being alone, he had spent his entire life alone, and suddenly, he had two people who cared for him. Granted, they were an Angel and an Ancient so he wasn't sure if they fully qualified as 'human', but still, they were people he came to care about. And they were nowhere to be found. Sephiroth curled up into a little ball and hugged his knees. It was cold, being alone. And he never noticed.

The doors opened with a hiss of hydraulics and Sephiroth quickly straightened out and let his expression go blank. But when he saw who had entered he almost let a smile crack his face.

"Professor Gast!" The man in question smiled at him warmly and went to sit on Sephioth's desk chair. Sephiroth was glad to see him again. Before Cloud came Professor Gast would often come to Sephiroth's room to talk and to check on him. As much as he liked the company of his angel he still missed talking to Professor Gast. He was also one of the few people Sephiroth respected and allowed himself to trust.

"I'm glad to see you're well Sephiroth." The professor smiled at him, though it seemed a bit strained to Sephiroth. "I trust you solved the 'monster' problem with Ifalna?"

It took Sephitroth a few moments to figure out what Professor Gast meant by 'monster'. "I assume the 'monster' you speak of is the Angel that saved my life?" Sephiroth very much wanted to frown at the professor and cross his arms but he knew that such 'outpour of emotions' would not sit well with Hojo, who he heard had awakened from his coma. It was better to stay under the radar until Cloud returned.

Gast sighed. "If you want to call it that. But I'm afraid I didn't come here to discuss that particular issue. I came here to say goodbye." He said somberly.

For a moment Sephiroth was confused. Then it hit him that Professor Gast was leaving. Probably for good. "Why? Does Miss Ifalna know of your departure?"

"Of course, she is the reason we have to leave." Gast frowned. "You are aware that she is pregnant?"

"Yes."

"And I'm sure you're aware of what would happen if Hojo heard of this." Gast said dead serious. It was no laughing matter, Goddess only knew what would happen if Hojo thought he could get his hands on a real newborn Cetra. Gast didn't dare to even think about it.

Sephiroth bowed his head, refusing to show how hurt he was. "I understand." On a logical level he understood that it would be better if they ran somewhere Hojo couldn't find them, but on an emotional level, he was hurt. There were only three people on the entire Planet he cared about, and two of them were about to leave, probably for good, and the third has been missing for a week.

Sephiroth could vaguely feel his heart tightening in fear. What if he never saw either one of them again? What if Cloud found who he was looking for in the Lifestream and wasn't coming back? If Professor Gast and Miss Ifalna ran far, far away and he would be left alone for Hojo to do as he pleased?

What if they abandoned him?

"I have to get going now." Gast got up from his seat, completely unaware of Sephiroth's inner turmoil. "Oh, before I forget, Ifalna told me to give this to you. One is for you. She said you would know who to give the other one to." Out of his coat he took two envelopes. One was addressed to Sephiroth himself, and the other to Cloud. Sephiroth could only stare at them blankly.

"I'm really sorry I couldn't stay. I really am." Gast sighed sadly. Still, he gave the Boy's shoulder a comforting grip. With that, he was out the door.

That was the last time Sephiroth saw him alive.

The silver haired boy sat there for a while, just staring at the envelopes. Finally, he decided to open the one addressed to him. He pulled out the neatly folded paper and started reading Ifalna's neat handwriting.

_Sephiroth,_

_I'm sincerely sorry for just having to up and leave like this, but I'm afraid we don't have much time. Gast heard Hojo discussing transferring the entire project JENOVA over to Midgar due to the destruction of the lab. By the time you get this letter, they would already begin to pack everything up. This is the ideal time to escape, as everyone is distracted. Again, I'm very sorry to simply leave like this, without even a proper goodbye but we had no choice._

_Please, apologize to Cloud too in my name. In his letter I wrote the address where we would be going, he could take you there. Now read carefully, in two days time the trucks for the transfer will come here to transport the entire project. That is the ideal time to escape yourself. One of the assistants, Stacey Rayleigh will help you. Her part is to distract Hojo and leave you a clear path to let you escape. Run as far as you can, and come to the Icicle Inn seven days after. Cloud will help you, and against the Planet's better judgment, I trust him. I hope you do too. Take care. We're waiting for you._

_Ifalna_

The paper in his had crinkled. Escape? Was that really the day he had secretly been hoping for? But it was in two days! What if Cloud didn't show up by then? What would he do? Hide in the village? Sephiroth looked down at his thin white button up shirt and pants. It was snowing outside! What would he do?

Sephiroth looked at the envelope addressed to Cloud. He had half the mind to open it and read it himself, but decided against it. If Cloud really came back it wouldn't do for him to find that he had been snooping through his things. So Sephiroth hid it inside the book of fairy tales Ifalna gave him. Hiding the book under his pillow he took his textbook and settled on his desk to study. Now, all he could do was wait.

* * *

_Green. Pain. Terrible pain. Pain of his flesh eating itself from inside out. Burning at his very soul, melting it, twisting it like hot metal until it was no longer recognizable. _

_'Why does this feel like déjà vu?'_

He was surrounded by endless green. It burned at his eyes so much he quickly shut them again. But it made no difference, the green burned all the same. Cloud wanted to scream in pure agony but he already knew it would do him no good. The years spent in the lab were still fresh in his mind, and screaming only meant the green would invade his throat, and burn that much more. But beyond the pain and the agonizing green, there was a familiar feeling.

He was floating up.

When Cloud finally felt air hit his face he tried to breathe in, only to be sent in a violent coughing fit when all he inhaled was green steam. He was seriously worried when the coughing only got more violent the more he struggled to get the alien substance from his throat. So he did the only thing he could. He held his breath and climbed onto the railing that acted like a miniature island in the sea of Mako. Cloud had vague memories of punching the railing off its hinges, and thanked the Goddess it somehow managed not to sink to the bottom of the reactor.

Once on it, he gave one powerful jump that sent him catapulting to the main pathway above the Mako. Using all the strength he had left he hauled himself onto it and then fell on his knees and retched the green substance that his body had managed to soak up. Once he was finished, Cloud only had the strength to roll away from it, panting. He simply closed his eyes, to rest a little bit.

An indefinite amount of time later, he was woken up from his slumber by somebody shouting at him. He struggled to open his eyes, and above him he saw a silhouette of somebody. A man. Cloud closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he had a feeling of being carried. It was strangely familiar, and that same feeling sent chills down his spine. Especially when he realized he was on a stretcher, and he was _tied down!_

"Man, I don't know who this guy is but I'm betting he's a SOLIDER!" He heard a man's voice from above him. "You think Hojo will give us a raise once we deliver him?"

"You bet! What do you think a SOLIDER was doing in the reactor?"

"Probably went ahead of us to get the specimen. You know, the freaky blue thing, whats'it called, Jenova? Anyway, he probably slipped and fell into the reactor and got Mako poisoning. He's as good as gone."

Cloud heard the words, and they awoke a long buried memory, one he didn't even know he had.

_"He's a SOLIDER, he'd be a good specimen."_

_"What about this one?"_

_"Hmm, a trooper? Hmm, he managed to defeat Sephiroth, he might be worth something. Alright, get them into the lab, and clean this place up. I'm eager to find out what secrets they hold." _

_That bone chilling laugh. Hojo's._

Cloud's eyes shot open and he tore the restrains effortlessly as he sat up. Out of instinct he grabbed his sword and swung it at the surprised man holding his stretcher. The man didn't even have time to blink before he was cleaved in half. His blood sprayed over Cloud's face and clothes. He quickly stood up and turned around, only to see the other man in a lab coat running away, screaming. Cloud's pupils shrunk until they were noting but needle thin slits. With a roar that bordered on madness, he ran after the lab assistant and cut him right across his back. The man simply let out a gasp as blood flooded his lungs, and he fell on the floor, blood seeping out of the giant slash on his back that reached from his right shoulder to his left hip.

Cloud could only stand there panting, his grip on his sword loose. When he finally got his breathing under control he looked closer at the man he killed and didn't know whether to be relieved or angered at the fact that it wasn't Hojo. He shook his head and ran his hand through his bloodied spikes. It had been a memory he didn't know he had ever lived through. It was just after the first time Sephiroth died, and Hojo and his assistants came to pick up his and Zack's bodies, turning them into specimens for five long years.

Then it hit him. The feeling of being watched. Cloud turned around slowly, and started walking to the middle of the reactor, where he remembered Sehiroth stood as he talked about becoming a God. There she was, just as he remembered her, imbedded into the machinery, her blue skin and her silver hair and even her red eye the same as it was imprinted in his memories. But she was strangely silent, her gleaming red eye simply observing him, trying to categorize him as a follower or an enemy. Then it hit Cloud: she thought he was her son.

It made sense. He had both J and S cells inside him, so she felt his presence just as she felt Sephiroth. But she was also confused, as she thought she had only one son; Sephiroth. And there came this stranger, grown up, bearing her cells and definitely not Sephiroth. Then Cloud got an idea. She was an extraterrestrial creature, and she could not die in the way dying was defined. But he could do what the Planet had done the first time to get rid of her.

He could trap her.

"Hello, Mother." Cloud smiled faintly, not letting his disgust show on his face. He could have sworn that the jewel like orb blinked at him.

_Are you my son?_

Her voice spoke directly into his mind, a swift breeze passing over his brain. It almost made Cloud shiver for reasons he would rather not put a name on.

"Yes, I came for you Mother, so we can destroy this world together, and sail the cosmos." Cloud hoped he had recited what Sephiroth had been babbling so long ago correctly. He opened his arms, like we waited for her to get up and hug him, and let his mental barriers open for a brief second.

That was all the invitation Jenova needed to leave the stolen body of the Ancient, and try to possess his mind. But as soon as she had passed into his mind, Cloud threw up his barriers, effectively trapping her within his mind.

And then she screamed. She screamed so loudly, Cloud clutched his head and fell to his knees. The pain in his head was great, and it soon spread all over his body, particulary in his back. He couldn't help it, he screamed. He screamed at the heavens, and just before he passed out he felt something rip out of his back. But the darkness consumed him before he even realized it. He didn't even feel it when his body fell down the pathway stairs and settled on the bottom. He didn't feel anything.

* * *

Sephiroth's head shot up when he heard screaming. He looked around frantically looking for the source, but then he realized it was coming from inside his head. He clutched his silver head and shut his eyes tightly, trying to block out the agonizing screams. And then, just as suddenly as they started, they stopped, and there was only one word left ringing in his head, the only one he could understand.

_Traitor._

* * *

Cloud staggered as he got up, but managed to thrust his sword into the metal floor for support. His ears were ringing like that time Yuffie had deemed it fit to wake him by banging a gong above his head. He had spent the rest of the day half deaf and his ears ringing for the rest of the week. Much like he was now.

Strangely enough, it must have messed up his balance too, because he felt like he would fall on his back if he moved an inch. But was just another thing to make his life even more miserable. However, as he finally straightened up, he felt something literally _pull _him down. He turned around and his eye almost bugged out of his head when he saw what was disturbing his balance.

Wings. Two, no wait, _four of them!?_

Indeed, he now had four wings! Two black ones, easily rivaling Sephiroth's own in size. Except of one he had two on each side. And underneath them were two white wings, too small to really be of any use in flight. They were almost completely covered by the two larger ones when they were folded down, and if it weren't for the small speck of white seen through the midnight black feathers he would have completely missed them.

Cloud was a bit stupefied. He never sprouted wings before, so why now? Did it have anything to do with Jenova's influence? It was possible, Sephiroth only started sprouting wings when Jenova got a hold on him, even his friends, Angeal and Genesis if he remembered correctly, only got wings after the Degradation set in, and the illness itself was caused by the instability of the Jenova cells in their bodies.

_Jenova._

Her corpse was now just that, a corpse. The red eye no longer glowed that eerie light, the hair no longer floated around her like an aura of death. Now, she didn't look like the powerful alien demi-goddess that came to the Planet millenniums ago, she simply looked like a pitiful rejected experiment. Though that was farthest from the truth, as the real Jenova was in the prison he made in his mind. If he closed his eyes and focused, he could see her, her two meter hair swaying as she paced in the imaginary cage, raging that one of her own managed to trick her.

Cloud shook his head and with a swish of feathers and cloth, he walked out of the reactor.

He had one more person to kill.

* * *

Sephiroth discreetly looked around when he finally heard the screaming stop. He clutched the book of fairy tales closer to his chest. The two assistants sat on the bench on either side of him seemed unperturbed by the cold, but then again, they were properly dressed under their lab coats. He still wore his thin garb he had on when they fetched him from his cell. He tried not to gawk at the snow covered landscape around him but he had little success. While he had been outside the mansion on a few occasions he had never ventured past the fence surrounding it and certainly not during winter!

He realized he had stopped to stare when one of the lab assistants, a female, had gripped his shoulder in a quiet command to keep walking. She wasn't looking at him directly, and yet she never seemed to leave him out of her sight. She seemed tense, like she was expecting something to happen. Her odd behavior made him think of Ifalna's letter. It said that a lab assistant by the name of Stacey Rayleigh would help him escape. As the assistants never told him their names he wasn't entirely certain she was the woman who was supposed to help him.

To test his theory, he stopped again. Almost immediately, the woman turned around to see why he stopped.

"Are you Stacey Rayleigh?" His question seemed to catch her completely off guard, but her expression gave Sephiroth a good enough answer so he started walking again even before he saw her nod.

They were accompanied to the truck by another assistant, this one male. He told Miss Rayleigh that due to the increase of security he would be riding with them. By the way Miss Rayleigh frowned Sephiroth suspected that this would impair their plans of escape a great deal. That is, if they could even put them into action at all without Cloud.

Cloud. Where was he? Sephiroth looked outside the open tailgate again, hoping to see the golden spikes or the leather clothes outside. Sephiroth felt that familiar fear grip him in his chest again when he realized Cloud probably wouldn't be coming back. He was on his own. He gripped the edges of the book tighter. No, he wasn't alone. Miss Ifalna and Professor Gast were waiting for him, he had somewhere to go. But he didn't know how he could get there without help. So in a way, he really was on his own.

He refused to let the tears in his eyes fall. But the feeling of betrayal was still there.

Stacey Rayleigh saw him looking outside and glanced at her watch. It was still too early to conduct her plans, and with Adolf there in the truck with them, she wasn't sure how would she go about letting the kid run. She looked at the silver haired boy, and noticed his shoulders shaking slightly. She mentally smacked herself on the forehead. He was just a kid, and it was below freezing outside! Standing up so she could take off her coat she drew the attention of the other assistant, Adolf. He frowned at her, but the glare she sent him was enough to shut him up. She shrugged the coat off and dropped it on Sephiroth's shoulders. The child looked at the coat for a moment, then turned to her.

"It's cold." She simply said. She hated having to sound so cold to him, but the less suspicion she drew to herself the better. She sat back down, deliberately avoiding looking at her colleague.

Sephiroth drew the coat tighter around his shoulders. To tell the truth, he _had _been feeling cold, but he was too distracted by his thoughts of Cloud abandoning him to really notice. He let go of the book for a moment to put his arms through the sleeves. It was really too big for him and the sleeves were hanging from him hands. Still, it kept his hands covered, so he left them like that and picked up his book again.

"_Book of Genesis_, huh? Didn't know you liked fairy tales." His head turned sharply at the male assistant's sarcastic tone. Rayleigh frowned from the other side.

"And what do you have against him reading fairy tales?" Stacey asked snappishly.

"The fact that Professor Hojo explicitly forbid his prize specimen exposed to anything that's not educational in nature, maybe?" Adolf asked as a matter of fact.

"That man knows nothing of children, let alone how to raise one! Besides, how harmful could it be to read something that's not a textbook? Don't tell me you didn't read it as a kid."

"I could care less what that little monster reads, but I just hope you're prepared to face Hojo's wrath when he finds out because I'm not covering for you!" Adolf stood up and yelled directly to Stacey's face, not caring that the 'little monster' could hear him.

Stacey just narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, standing her ground. "I never asked you to. Besides, what's the worst he could do?"

Her words were followed by an explosion that threw the entire truck sideways.

* * *

_AN: Another cliffhanger, yay! Please don't kill me... Your guess is as good as mine as to who Cloud saw in the Void, but I like to think the first one was Lightning._

Did Cloud really abandon Sephiroth now that he got a body? What or who attacked them? What will happen to Ifalna and the unborn Aerith? Well, you have to wait to find out. Toodles!


	9. Dragon in Flight

**Author's note: I've been sick for the last few days and dragged through all the hospitals within a twenty mile radius, so I hope you will forgive me for not uploading the chapter sooner. Don't worry, weekly updates should continue soon, as long as I don't get sick again. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 9.

To say Cloud was surprised to find out that flying came as naturally to him as breathing was an understatement. It was amazing really, to feel the wind through the feathers, his hair blowing in it, it was almost beyond compare. It was similar to riding Fenrir at its highest speed, only so much better. Cloud smirked as he did a big loop in the air, the winter wind of the Nibel Mountains carrying him as if he was a real bird.

With one fell swoop Cloud landed on a plateau that was surprisingly flat and smooth considering it was naturally formed. There, Cloud panted slightly as he looked to the horizon. From the sun's position he deduced it was around mid morning, a few hours past dawn. He figured he still had time. So he turned and sat on a conveniently placed rock to think. Since he didn't dare leave his body unattended with Jenova in his mind a trip to the Void was out of option. So a rock would have to do.

So, now that he had a body, what was he supposed to do? Jenova at least was taken care of, so that left Hojo and Sephiroth. He would have preferred Hojo tortured for as long as possible, but he wasn't really sure how to conduct that plan. At this point though, Cloud just wanted the scientist dead. Even a quick sword-through-stomach was good, as long as it did its job.

Sephiroth was a different matter entirely. Cloud realized he had already irrevocably changed the course of history as he remembered it. Now what was he supposed to do with the child, or even himself? He hadn't really thought much past the 'get rid of Hojo and Jenova' stage. Obviously, once Sephiroth was free he would need somebody to take care of him. Cloud briefly considered Vincent but a quick pat through his pockets assured him that the gunman's Materia was still there.

Cloud was hit by a bout of guilt. Him claiming his body in this existence robbed Vincent of his. Cloud told himself he couldn't really be sure until he checked the coffin in which AVALANCHE found Vincent in the first time, but at the end of the day it didn't really matter. If Vincent really was in that Materia, then even if his body was in that coffin it would be an empty shell.

That however still left the problem of Sephiroth's caretaker open. So far, the only candidate left was Ifalna, but she was pregnant already, and couldn't know what a child made almost entirely of Mako could need. There was also another concern. Cloud knew from experience he really didn't want to have that new mothers sometimes had bouts of irrationality, and sometimes did things that they would later regret, things they couldn't take back. Unfortunately, he had nobody else suitable.

He briefly considered his own mother, who he knew would show Sephiroth love he so desperately craved, but soon dismissed it. She had just suffered the loss of losing her own child, and while that could mean she would take Sephiroth as if he was the child she had lost, the complete opposite effect could happen too. She had lost her baby, shoving a child under her care as a replacement could cause her to break completely, and after being directly responsible for the loss of her first child, he couldn't risk the latter scenario happening.

So that only left Ifalna… and himself. While Cloud had to admit, he was pretty qualified for the task and Sephiroth liked him, maybe even looked up to him. He knew Sephiroth's medical needs and how his mind worked to some degree. There was nothing stopping him from taking the child under his wing. Heh, literally. But still, there was something nagging at him from the back of his mind, the part of him that never forgot what happened all those centuries ago, the pain Sephiroth inflicted, the horrors he caused, stopped him. It was actually quite a simple reason.

Cloud was terrified.

Perhaps not of Sephiroth himself, but there was always doubt in his mind that he had actually made any difference, that Sephiroth would go insane and destroy the world with or without Jenova's influence. While it was unlikely, it wasn't impossible either. And he knew Sephiroth as an adult. Right now, he looked nearly nothing like his older self, but what when he grew older? When he grew into the same man Cloud had seen burn Nibelheim, destroy his life and nearly the entire Planet? How could he look him in the eyes then, when the memories of a person he could have become, _had become_, would haunt him every time he smiled or even said a word that reminded him of the future?

It was impossible.

Still, maybe it was worth a try. When Cloud stopped to think about it, he didn't really know Sephiroth. He knew a crazed madman, a Sephiroth that was more Jenova than the General underneath the face. What Sephiroth was like before the Nibelheim incident, he had no clue. So maybe, just maybe, he could try and it could work out. Maybe Sephiroth would have a life that had been stolen from him by Hojo and ShinRa.

Cloud was cut out of his thoughts by a gust of hot wind on his back, and a growl behind him.

He slowly turned around, only to be faced with a dragon's opened maw, displaying some impressively sharp teeth. Cloud raised an eyebrow. Did the dragon think of him as prey? Couldn't he smell the Mako in him? Cloud had learned long ago that animals and even some low level monsters avoided him like a plague. On the other hand, he attracted high level monsters like sugar attracted flies. But none of them were interested in eating him, only intending to kill him as a way of securing their turf. By the way this dragon was sniffing him, it either considered him a meal or a mate. Between the two, Cloud's money was on the former.

His suspicions were confirmed as the dragon suddenly lounged at him with its mouth wide open. Cloud, even with his inhuman reflexes almost didn't dodge it in time. He cursed as he scrapped his wings on the ground. At least it was relatively smooth and Cloud realized the real reason for its smoothness actually stood above him, growling. Damn it, of all the places he could have chosen to land on, it just HAD to be in front of a dragon's cave!

Muttering colorful curses under his breath in multiple languages, Cloud patted his pockets in search of Materia. But before he had a chance to pull the orb out the dragon launched a lightning attack that singed his feathers. And only then did he notice the dragon's color. When he did, he cursed his shitty luck six ways to Sunday.

It was a black dragon.

He managed to jump behind a rock just before the dragon breathed fire at him. Fire that nearly melted the rock behind him and heated it to the point Cloud was sweating. Now royally pissed off, Cloud prepared to cut the damn dragon's head off when he abruptly stopped. The dragon wasn't behind the smoking rock, or anywhere on the plateau. He looked around in confusion and was about to give up until his danger sense began to go haywire. In a split second he managed to jump and flip out of the way before the dragon crashed to the spot he was only half a second ago. He reached behind his back for his sword, only to grasp thin air. He looked behind him and indeed, his sword was no longer on his back but on the edge of the clearing, dangling precariously close to falling.

Cloud cursed his luck _seven _ways to Sunday. Then the dragon noticed him again. Fuck Sunday, curse his luck seven ways to _Monday_! Now disarmed and unbalanced against a formidable opponent, Cloud was at a serious loss at what to do.

_**Let him bite you.**_

Cloud nearly stumbled and fell on his ass when he heard a voice inside his head, and the dragon saw his opportunity. It lunged at him, aiming to cleave him in half with his claw, and before Cloud regained enough of his composure to duck the claw managed to rip off some of his primary feathers.

Cloud really wished the wings would disappear. During flight, they were awesome, but walking with them was hard, and fighting was next to impossible. How in seven Hells did Sephiroth do it? To top everything off, there was a voice in his head talking to him, and he didn't have to be a genius to figure out that it wasn't Gaia.

_What the fuck are you talking about?_

_**You can control anything with your cells. Feed it your blood, and it will be yours to control.**_

The way Jenova talked creeped Cloud out so much he nearly shivered. But he had to admit, her suggestion seemed to have more and more appeal as he thought about it. And really, at this point Cloud was just focusing on trying not to get eaten. Well, not entirely at least. So, deciding he was insane anyway, Cloud decided to listen to Jenova and jumped at the dragon.

The beast obviously wasn't expecting its prey literally jumping into its mouth so it was stunned and still long enough for Cloud to hold onto one of its horns with one arm and cut his other arm on its teeth. His blood, black with hints of green, seeped into the beast's maw and by the time the dragon realized all he had to do to catch it's prey was close its mouth, Cloud already jumped off. But it had the wanted effect of the dragon swallowing the liquid. Cloud stood some steps away, still posed to run if the dragon continued to pursue him.

The beast lapped at his teeth a few times before he seemed to shiver and then shake its enormous head, like it was trying to get rid of a pest. Then he let out a roar, of rage or agony, Cloud wasn't sure, before flapping his wings and taking to the sky. Cloud stood there in stunned silence, watching it fly off.

_**Call it back, for you are his Master now.**_

This time her voice did send shivers down his spine, but he was still curious it she was telling the truth. So he took a big breath, closed his eyes and focused.

_Come back here._

Cloud opened his eyes and looked around. No dragons in sight. He was ready to call it quits when he suddenly heard a roar. He turned around sharply and right behind him he saw a dragon as it landed. It shook its wings slightly and stretched its neck toward him. Cloud instinctively reached for his weapon only to curse again when he realized he still hadn't reclaimed it. Thankfully, the dragon only stood on all fours, belly almost on the ground and looked at him intently, as if awaiting a new order.

Cloud couldn't believe it worked. An advice Jenova gave him actually worked. That made him more suspicious than the thought of Sephiroth giving him flowers. Brrr, as if the man wasn't insane already. Wait, he wasn't yet. Argh, his headache was back.

Cloud griped his hair, resisting the urge to pull it out of his head. Alright, so Jenova actually wanted to help him. That entire statement just _reeked _of an ulterior motive. So he said 'fuck it all' and found a nice boulder to sit on. He turned to the dragon that was still looking at him. Cloud narrowed his eyes and ordered him to 'stay'. The dragon obeyed and settled into a more comfortable position on the ground. So Cloud closed his eyes and focused.

_He was in a world of black. A complete opposite of the Lifestream's Void. Cloud looked around, subconsciously rubbing his arms. When he noticed what he was doing he stopped and let his arms fall to his sides. But it was just so cold in here. The fact that there were metal bars all around him didn't help. _

_It was a cage. Inside his own mind._

_"Welcome, my son. I was expecting you." Cloud whirled around and almost let his jaw drop to the floor when he saw her._

_This was Jenova? It couldn't be… But then, he did see the family resemblance to Sephiroth. The woman in front of him was sitting on a plush black leather armchair, completely at ease. She looked to be in her twenties, with lush two meter hair splayed around her. Her crossed legs were enfolded in loose leather pants and boots that rode low on her hips and stayed on her only because of the numerous leather belts around her hips, tights and calves._

_She wore a leather midriff baring bolero jacket with only one button actually buttoned so it revealed a nice bit of cleavage. And what she was hiding underneath… Cloud was pretty sure that if he hadn't spent an entire human lifetime with Tifa he would have blushed. Nearly slapping himself for staring at JENOVA of all… creatures, he glared at her venomously._

_"Why did you help me?" He nearly growled at her._

_Surprisingly, Jenova's expression turned to something akin to hurt before she regained her usual smirk. It may have been Cloud's imagination, but he saw no real malice in it._

_"What kind of mother would I be if I didn't help my own son in time of need?" Cloud was nearly creeped out of his skin when that smirk turned into a smile. A smile he had often seen on his own mother's face. It was… motherly._

_Suddenly, he understood all too well why Sephiroth had caved to her so easily._

_"You are not my mother, I already have a mother."_

_"The one whose real son you killed?" She shot back and Cloud flinched. She had to bring that up… He looked down and clenched his fists. It was a low blow, but it hurt that much more because it was true._

_"She doesn't even know you exist." Jenova continued, this time more kindly. "And she won't accept you. But I will. You are my son, and though I do not know what I have done to make you hate me so much, I promise I will do everything in my power to make it right."_

_Suddenly she was right in front of him and taking his hands in hers, brushing his knuckles with her thumbs. Cloud almost jerked back, but something stopped him. Perhaps because, even though it was Jenova, it was the kind of touch he hadn't felt since he was a young boy, and he felt like that boy now. It was… warm._

_"You have to go now." He looked her in the eyes. Red eyes with a slit pupil, glowing like his own. He found no malice in them either, only gentleness._

_"You brother is in need of your help. Go. Save him from that madman." Almost out of nowhere, he found himself pushed, past the bars of Jenova's prison, and out of his own mind._

Cloud felt like his soul was just slammed back into his body. So much in fact, that this time he did fall on his back. He was left disoriented for a second, and could only stare wide eyed at the evening sky. It didn't even register in his mind that it was the middle of the day when he retreated to talk to Jenova and now the sky was turning into a vivid oranges, reds, and finally violets. There was only one thought his befuddled mind could comprehend at that moment.

What in the world had just happened?!

He couldn't believe he had almost given in to Jenova! But then again, she hadn't demanded he give in or anything of the sort. Cloud snorted. It was just a new tactic, when she realized her usual methods wouldn't work. What really disturbed him was the fact that it almost worked. Had she decided to take over instead of pushing him out… Then he remembered her words.

He had to help Sephiroth!

Cloud quickly got up to his feet and with relief noticed that his wings were gone. He quickly grabbed First Tsurugi that, thank Gaia, managed not to fall off the cliff. His sword secure and ready, Cloud was faced with another problem: how in the world was he supposed to get off that cliff? He flew on it the first time but now that his wings had disappeared, short of jumping down, he had no way to get to Sephiroth.

A soft growling noise made him slowly turn around.

The black dragon was still there, belly brushing against the ground, looking at him. Cloud raised an eyebrow. He never rode a dragon before, but since he still had control over that one he might as well try. Slowly, Cloud came around the dragon and mounted it. The dragon remained calm. Cloud made sure he had a good grip and took a deep breath.

_Fly._

The dragon leapt in the air and stretched its giant leathery wings. It soared into the sky and through the clouds then took a dive, and back again. Cloud couldn't help but smile slightly. He liked the dragon more every second. And if he was going to be his ride he would probably have to give him a name.

_Well you're a black dragon. Guess I can call you Corax._

As if it understood him, the dragon growled softly, which Cloud took as an affirmative. He was telling the dragon with his mind where to go and they soon saw the Nibelheim village, the ShinRa mansion and… an entourage of trucks? Cloud's eyes widened when he realized what was going on.

They were going to Midgar. That left Cloud with only one option if he wanted to save Sephiroth: direct attack.

_Burn._

The dragon he was riding shot a giant fireball on one of the trucks. It exploded and burned everything in its range. Soon, the people were screaming and the SOLDIERS prepared for the attack. Cloud paid them no mind. Instead he flew over the trucks looking for Sephiroth. As he came over one that was turned on its side at the end of the line, Jenova spoke.

_There._

* * *

Stacey groaned as she stood up. She couldn't believe how she jinxed everything! But really, what were the odds of something exploding when she asked what was the worst that could happen? A soft groan made her scowl turn into a look of fear.

"Sephiroth!" She called and pulled the boy into a sitting position. He was still clutching the storybook with one hand and he had the other hand on his head, his eyes shut with pain. A quick check-over confirmed it was just a bruise and that he had no other injuries. She sighed in relief only to tense in fear when the tent that served as the roof of the truck was torn open with a screech of metal and the tear of cloth. She hugged Sephiroth to herself and turned around.

What she saw made her want to repent.

There stood the devil. That was the only way she could think to describe him. He rode a giant black dragon that had fire spewing from its mouth. The devil himself had dark clothes and a glowing weapon in his hand. On his back were great black wings and feathers flew around him like a dark aura. His glowing red eyes were boring into her, looking straight into her soul.

She screamed. She screamed so loudly she thought her vocal cords would tear.

And she noticed too late that the silver child was no longer in her arms.

* * *

When he heard Miss Rayleigh scream, Sephiroth looked around him in alarm. He saw the dragon first and gave a little gasp of fear, but when he saw who was riding the dragon, his heart leapt with joy.

"Cloud!" Sephiroth called him. He abandoned Miss Rayleigh's hold and ran to his angel, too happy to notice or care about the dragon, the flaming sword he wielded or that his eyes were glowing a frightening red. All he saw was Cloud dismounting the great black beast and opening his arms. Sephiroth jumped into his arms and Cloud hugged him to his chest, completely missing how his eyes turned to their fluorescent blue again.

"I thought you left me." Sephiroth whispered as he hid his face in Cloud's neck. He was really fighting tears of happiness. Cloud's hand found way into his hair and he pressed his lips against his hair.

"I will never abandon you." Those words meant the world to Sephiroth. He felt himself being picked up and he held tightly onto Cloud's neck. Cloud mounted the dragon again but didn't let go of him even as the beast soared up into the sky again. Sephiroth heard screams and explosions but when he tried to look, Cloud's grip on him tightened.

"Don't look. It's okay." He whispered in a comforting tone, and Sephiroth squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't really think it was okay, but if Cloud said it would be, then it would.

* * *

As he mounted Corax once again, Cloud gripped the sword licked by the blue flames tightly and the child with another. He looked at the woman who had been in the van with Sephiroth. She was trembling like a leaf in a storm as Cloud looked her over. She didn't have a lab coat so she probably wasn't a scientist but what would a villager be doing in here? Was she trying to save Sephiroth? If that was so, Cloud deemed it reason enough to spare her life.

With an unspoken command Corax took to the air and dodged the onslaught of bullets from the infantrymen that were shooting at them. He breathed fire at them and they disintegrated before Cloud's eyes. He was sorry for taking lives like that, but he knew from experience that whoever worked for ShinRa willingly was corrupt and anyone who lived would tell them what they saw. Cloud spent a year on the constant run from ShinRa, and this time he had a child to watch over.

They were better off dead anyway.

Making sure he still had Sephiroth's face pressed into his collarbone Cloud ordered Corax to fly over the entourage. He looked down and then shifted his focus on the Materia in his sword. A mastered Fire. And a mastered All Materia. He knew it was a bit of overkill, but you can never be sure when ShinRa is involved.

Cloud looked down and cast. Everything he passed over burned and if something escaped the fire, Corax soon care of it. In a few minutes, all that was left from ShinRa's trucks, along with everything and everyone inside, and surrounding foliage were ashes. Cloud gave a quick nod and ordered the dragon to turn around. He wanted to leave as soon as possible, but he didn't know how much could Sephiroth endure. Sure he was enhanced, but he doubted that would save him from the harsh Nibelheim cold. It was early fall, but even in those times the storm could come, and for that Sephiroth needed at least proper clothing.

Only then did he notice that Sephiroth was wearing a lab coat. Cloud frowned. Didn't those bastards deign to at least give a little kid some proper clothing? It solidified Cloud's resolve and he ordered Corax to land. The dragon touched the land and folded his wings. Cloud slid off.

"Where are we?" Sephiroth asked and Cloud cursed mentally when he noted the blue tinge around the rim of his lips. He hefted the child onto his hip and looked at Corax.

_Fly and don't come until I call you._

The dragon seemed to nod and flew away. Sephiroth watched in awe as the powerful beast flew away, not minding the soft flakes of snow that started falling from the sky. He watched the floating white puffs in wide eyed awe. He had read about the phenomenon in his textbooks and seen some pictures but none of it compared to the real thing. He opened his hand and one flake fell on his open palm and instantly melted. It made Sephiroth smile slightly.

"You act as if you've never seen snow before." Cloud chuckled softly. Sephiroth flushed in embarrassment and looked away. Cloud's chuckles stopped.

"You haven't, have you?"

"Only on pictures. Hojo rarely allowed me to go outside, and never during such low temperatures." He mumbled as an answer and heard Cloud utter a quiet but foreign curse. Sephiroth flinched. He hoped Cloud wasn't disappointed in him. When he felt Cloud's grip tighten he braved a quick glance at his face. Thankfully, he saw no disappointment or disapproval there, but he didn't like the look of that frown he wore. Still, it wasn't aimed at him so he figured he wasn't in trouble. As Cloud started walking Sephiroth wrapped the lab coat around him tighter. It was cold.

"As much as I don't want to, we have to go into the village. You need proper clothes and preferably a warm bed to sleep in." Cloud informed him. As soon as he said that Cloud realized the error of his words. As soon as ShinRa discovers the carnage he left behind, they were bound to go looking for survivors, and question the locals. They had the description of Sephiroth, and the townspeople were always eager to babble. If anyone saw them they would be in trouble. That ruled out the Nibelheim inn. He could of course break into one of the houses while its residents were away.

No that wouldn't work. It would be morning in a few hours, everyone was in their houses at this time. Cloud was contemplating simply skipping Nibelheim altogether and going straight to Rocket Town. Still, it was pretty far away, even while flying. The last thing he needed-

"Achoo!"

-was for Sephiroth to catch a cold. Which he probably just did. Cloud sighed and resigned to the fact that he would have to visit the resentful village anyway. Not wanting to alert the close-minded villagers anymore than he did already with the explosions, he walked there. Besides, he still didn't know how to retract the wings without Jenova's help, and he sure as Hell wasn't going to ask her for advice.

As he came to the edge of the village, Cloud suddenly had an epiphany. He knew of at least one person who was kind enough in this entire village to take in a possibly dangerous stranger with a sick child. The only one who wouldn't rat them out to ShinRa and wouldn't pry into their secrets, because she had too many of them herself. Still, it broke Cloud's heart to have to do that to the very same person he had wronged such a short time ago.

Cloud hugged Sephiroth closer to his chest and went to his mother's house.

* * *

_AN:There's a poll on my profile, go check it out! It concerns the possibility of Cloud's girlfriend!  
_

_Reviews will be loved, constructive criticism read, re-read, and fawned over, and flames used to make marshmallows. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I'll be happy to answer them.  
_


	10. Guardian Devil

**Author's note: Well, I must honestly say I'm disappointed with the number of votes on my poll. Only three people voted. Three! **

**Results: 2 votes for 'None' and (surprisingly) 1 vote for Meta. So yeah, still no pairings. **

**So, as you can see, the story goes onward, but without any romance involved. Still, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Cloud had a distinct feeling that he was standing in front of the gates of Hell; you don't know what is on the other side, but you just know it's going to be awfully painful. But he wasn't standing in front of the gates of Hell, he was standing in front of the doors of his former home. Which, in his mind, was a thousand times worse. He could face the worst of the demons Hell might throw at him, but the thought of seeing the look on his mother's face was unbearable.

How could you look at the woman you lost the right to call mother?

But he couldn't keep standing there like an idiot, lest he attracted some seriously unwanted attention from the townsfolk. People would undoubtedly question the presence of a dangerous looking man standing like a creeper before someone's house with a child. Thankfully, most of the village was at the burnt wreckage, probably searching for the survivors and trying to put out the fire. That also meant she might be with them.

With small speck of hope in his chest, Cloud knocked softly on the wooden surface. Once, twice, quickly.

No response.

He tried again, a bit harder this time, and when the house remained silent he pushed the door open. Strange, he remembered his mother always locked the door. A quick inspection confirmed the lock was indeed there and not broken. It simply wasn't locked.

Cloud figured she forgot to lock it properly when she shut the door in her haste.

He quickly slipped inside and closed the door, but didn't lock it in case the real owner came back. Looking around the house properly this time, Cloud was surprised he didn't feel that strange pang in his chest. The one that always appeared when he saw something from his past. But now, there was none of that twitching pain.

Cloud realized it was because it wasn't his home anymore.

Shaking his head of such feelings Cloud turned to look at Sephiroth, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, even for him. He didn't even try to fight the small smile that stretched over his lips when he saw that Sephiroth had dozed off. Feeling slightly surprised the boy trusted him to that extent, he hugged him tighter and set in search of the bedroom. He eventually found it, the bed rumpled and unmade. Cloud frowned. Eve Strife was a very neat creature by nature, and she never left her bed unmade.

Once again dismissing the gesture at the one of great haste, he set Sephiroth on the bed. The child mumbled something and frowned slightly at the loss of warmth. Cloud then noticed the book he was clutching to his chest like a lifeline this entire time. Carefully, Cloud extracted the tome from his vice like grip and looked at the cover. Book of Genesis? At the word Genesis Cloud was hit with an image of a man. He remembered Genesis, with reddish auburn hair streaked with grey, skin cracked like dry earth and a great black wing with an odd joint protruding from his left shoulder.

Cloud shook his head. His memories of him were fuzzy at best, so that meant they were mostly Zack's. Deciding he better not dwell on it any longer, Cloud looked around the room, searching for something to distract him. In that search, he noticed something was amiss. He couldn't really pinpoint what, but his eyes kept returning to the nightstand for some reason. He traced his fingers over the smooth surface of one corner. He could have sworn there was supposed to be something there.

An apple. A red apple, beautifully made from blown glass. Cloud remembered very few things from his early childhood, but he remembered the apple, always standing on the bedside table, smooth and polished. He never dared to touch it, for it seemed his mother held the apple, or at least what it represented in high regard. He sometimes caught her sitting on her bed, turning the apple in her hands and muttering something softly with silent tears running down her cheeks. He always supposed it had something to do with his father, but he never dared to ask.

The apple was the most important item in the house for her. Where was it?

He was cut out of his thoughts when he heard banging on the front door. Immediately wary, because his mother wouldn't knock on her own doors, he stood up and readied First Tsurugi, ready to intercept the stranger.

"Eve! Eve, are you there? Come out Eve, there is fire near the village, we have to go help!" An unfamiliar woman's voice came from the other side of the door. Strangely enough, the voice gave him a slight feeling of déjà vu, but he could have sword he had never heard that voice before. He had been immersed in his thoughts for a second too long, because when he looked up, frightened red eyes were looking into his own.

The second she came to her senses, the woman tried to run. Not knowing what else to do, Cloud dropped his sword and jumped after her. With his enhanced speed, the redhead didn't even get past the doorway properly before Cloud had his arms around her and his hand on her mouth. He knew damn well she would try to scream, and it was bad enough he was caught already, he didn't need the entire village of nosy idiots after him. Closing the door with his foot he dragged the woman to the living room. He forced her to sit on the worn out couch and forced her to look at him, still covering her mouth.

"If you promise not to scream I'm going to release you, understand?" Though she was obviously still frightened she nodded. Cloud slowly removed his hand from her mouth, and as soon as he leaned away, he felt a jab of a heeled boot in his stomach. Not expecting it he stumbled back a few steps, which the woman used to try and bolt away. Cloud cursed his luck and ran after her again. He managed to grab her right before she reached the door.

Holding her tightly again her growled in her ear. "I thought I told you not to do that."

"You told me not to scream." She spat at him. "You never said anything about running away."

Clever girl. "Unfortunately, I can't let you go either." He said and dragged her over to the couch again. The woman wrenched her arms out of his hold and sat down with her arms crossed, glaring at him.

"Cloud, what is going on?" Both adults turned their head in surprise at the childish voice coming from the doorway of the bedroom. Sephiroth stood there, looking asleep on his feet, one hand clutching the doorway and another fisted in the front of his shirt.

"It's alright, nothing's wrong." Giving the redheaded woman a discreet warning glance Cloud knelt down to pick up Sephiroth, who eagerly wrapped his hands around his neck and continued dozing on Cloud's shoulder. He spotted the woman sitting on the couch looking put out.

"Who is that lady?" Sephiroth turned to look at Cloud curiously. Cloud frowned slightly, thinking how to explain to Sephiroth the situation they found themselves in, when the woman stood up from the couch and came over to them.

"We have a mutual friend. It's alright, shouldn't you be in bed?" The woman smiled warmly at him, mollified now that she saw how this stranger was treating a child. In her book, anyone who had a child and treated them well couldn't be that bad.

While the answer would usually be insufficient to Sephiroth, he was so tired he just had the energy to nod and fell asleep on Cloud's shoulder. Cloud sent another warning look in the woman's direction before going into the bedroom and tucking Sephiroth into the bed. He set the Book of Genesis on the bedside table where the apple was supposed to be and returned to the living room. The woman was still there with her arms crossed, though she wasn't glaring at him anymore.

"Alright, after that display I'm willing to listen what you have to say in your defense." She said in a voice that was bordering on hostile.

Knowing he couldn't tell her the truth, and not wanting to lie, Cloud settled for a modified version. "My name is Cloud, and I'm a mercenary. I was passing through this area when I saw burnt wreckage. I pulled a child out of it as you just saw, and I needed someplace to stay away from the cold. This was the only house that wasn't locked."

The woman looked at him with her fiery eyes, and suddenly Cloud remembered where he saw her before. It was only once, when he was very young. He remembered he broke his arm and his mother had taken him to a friend of hers who could use magic. He couldn't remember the woman's name, but he remembered those fiery red eyes as they looked him over and the smile she gave him when she healed him.

If Cloud's memory was correct, she disappeared without a trace a few years before he went to join SOLDIER.

The healer seemed slightly surprised at the information, but quickly covered it, instead looking him over as if searching for lies. Cloud held himself upright, but not tense, showing no outward signs of lying. Finally, the redhead nodded, accepting his story.

"From the way you nearly attacked me when I came in I assume you don't know Eve." Cloud shook his head. Technically, he never met the woman from this timeline. "She's going to freak out if she sees you here. She's going through some rough times right now, the last thing she needs is an armed stranger in her home. Take the child with you, I'm taking you to my home."

With those words she turned and went to the exit doors. Cloud stood there for a moment, as if debating with himself whether or not to accept her offer. Well, it sounded more like an order and he didn't seem to be given an option to refuse. But she was right, and her offer sounded better than the other option. So Cloud went to retrieve his sword and strapped it to his back. He went to the bedroom and gently lifted Sephiroth on his hip, holding him with one arm and in his other hand he took the book of fairy tales he seemed to like so much.

That done, he came to the entrance door, where the healer was still waiting for them.

"You know my name, yet I do not know yours."

"I am Meta Salmhofer. Now come, before the little one catches a cold."

* * *

While the front yard of Meta's home was covered in intricately woven vines that were somehow able to survive the cold, probably due to magic, the interior had a surprisingly cozy atmosphere. Most furniture was made from light colored wood and Cloud recognized the smell of pine wood burning. The walls weren't painted, but simply built from a slightly darker shade of wood. It gave the room a warm and homey feeling. Honestly, it all looked more like an elaborate cottage than a house.

Cloud was slightly surprised that Meta had a guest room in her house. Most houses in Nibelheim were minimalistic at best, except the very few wealthier individuals, like the Mayor. Cloud wondered if she was one of them. But if she was a wealthy woman why was she living alone? It was suspicious.

"You live here alone?" Cloud asked cautiously. If she had any ties to ShinRa he would kill her without a second thought. He couldn't risk it.

"Not many people want to be associated with the witch. Still, they don't exactly have a choice if they want a competent healer around here." Meta said, her voice bordering on bitter. "Wait here a minute, I'm going to get the bed ready."

Cloud understood what she meant, being all too familiar of the close-minded way of the villagers. He nodded and sat on the couch, Sephiroth cradled on his lap. Poor boy, all that action and running away must have drained him completely. Not knowing what else to do, Cloud opened the Book of Genesis, wanting to read the book to pass the time.

He didn't expect an envelope to fall out of it.

Cloud raised an eyebrow. Sephiroth was hiding a letter in the book? Strange… He picked up the envelope and looked it over. What was even stranger was that it was addressed to him. Making sure that Meta was still in the guest room he tore open the envelope and read the contents of the letter.

_Cloud_

_As I have told Sephiroth, I am sorry for leaving without even saying goodbye but I had no choice. For Aerith's sake, I had to run. By the time you get this letter, the transfer of the JENOVA Project will probably begin, and I told Sephiroth to escape. Please Cloud, for his sake and your own, get him away from JENOVA and that place. Find him and make sure to cover your traces._

_Come to this address a week after your escape, and make sure you aren't followed. I already told Gast to expect you. Don't worry, he doesn't know what you are and even though he is a scientist he is a good man. Please, take care._

_Ifalna_

_P.S. Thank you for your gift, though I have to question your methods of delivering it._

At the bottom was the address Cloud recognized as the location of the lab in the Icicle Inn. He smiled. Thank Gaia, that meant Aerith would be safe. And he almost snorted at the last sentence. The kiss he used as a distraction to tie the Ribbon in Ifalna's hair was just that; a distraction. It only later occurred to him that she might take it the wrong way, but dismissed that thought as she already had a husband, or at least a lover. She couldn't have made Aerith by herself after all.

Cloud folded the letter nearly and returned it to the envelope. On another note, what was taking their hostess that long?

* * *

Meta was nearly elbow deep in a chest full of Materia. She already had three bracelets ready to equip Materia, hidden beneath her billowy sleeves. Child or not, she learned the hard way not to trust people who were paid to do what nobody else wanted or dared to. Cloud was a mercenary, albeit one kind enough to save a child he didn't know, but she didn't doubt that if he was offered a large enough sum of money he would rip the child apart. Mercenaries cared only for money, and she still couldn't be sure if he was on the job.

If _HE _sent Mister Cloud after her, she would be prepared.

Making sure the Materia was hidden Meta closed the chest and pulled out some clean sheets from the closet. Still, she couldn't be sure without asking him, and if he was after her… Well, he already proved he was much stronger than her, the only way she had any hope of defeating him was taking him by surprise. And yet, there was a chance he really was just helping the poor child. If that was the case she wouldn't be able to sleep at night if she didn't help them. She had already done her share of horrible things, she didn't need to pile more on top of it.

Once the bed was set she went back to her living room to find the two still on the couch. The boy was still sleeping on Cloud's lap and the said mercenary was leafing through the book he brought with them. They actually made a pretty cute sight. Meta smiled sadly, part of her wishing she was in his place. She had wanted children of her own for a long time, but it seemed her own life was against it. And as much as she wanted children, she couldn't exactly have them while she was-

"Why are you just standing there?" Meta nearly had a heart attack. Holding her hand over her chest she looked at Cloud who was turned on the couch, looking at her curiously.

"Sorry, I was just… Never mind, wishful thinking. I came to inform you that the bed is done. Sorry, I just have one, you'll have to share." She informed them quickly and turned around.

"You are hiding something." Meta nearly jumped out of her skin and spun around. Cloud was standing right in front of her, his eyes narrowed. How the Hell did he move so fast?! At that moment, she felt a wave of icy fear creep up her spine. It was as if the mercenary's very aura was trying to freeze her.

"W-what are you talking about?" Meta squeezed out.

His eyes narrowed further. "I can smell lies and secrets. You reek of both. You are hiding something, something dangerous, to you or to anyone close to you."

Meta didn't notice she was backing away until her back hit the wall. She pressed her palms against it, the words to activate the Materia she wore already on the tip of her tongue. But for some reason, she couldn't force them past the prison of her teeth, not with those eerily glowing eyes staring at her, stripping away her defenses and leaving her secrets bare.

"I don't care what you're hiding, I don't care who is after you. But if you endanger the boy in any way, I won't hesitate to tear you apart piece by piece. And don't expect reprieve in the afterlife, I will personally make sure you come to your personal _Hell. _Do you understand me?" Now barely an inch away from her face, Cloud's words was like a snake's hiss: dangerous and dipped in venom. Meta only managed a shaky nod.

Cloud finally relented then, moving away from her and Meta only realized she was holding her breath when the lack of oxygen forced her to finally exhale and start breathing again. She gave the mercenary one last fearful look and fled for her bedroom.

Cloud stood there for a moment, looking at the door disdainfully before turning around and picking Sephiroth up. The boy didn't wake up so he simply carried him to the guest room and tucked him into the fresh sheets. After a moment, Cloud left the book on the bedside table and sat on the edge. Unable to help himself, Cloud looked at him. While asleep, Sephiroth finally looked his age. While the stony mask of disinterest made him look far too old for his body Sephiroth couldn't maintain it while he was unconscious. Cloud smiled, just a slight upturn of the lips, nearly imperceptible to the untrained eye, but still a smile.

How long had it been since he had to take care of a child on his own? A century at least, maybe even more. Cloud considered it a blessing that his photographic memory made it hard for him to become rusty at anything once learned. But he also learned the hard way that every child was different and the psyche of two children were as different as an apple and a peach: similar shape, but completely different fruit. While it helped somewhat that it was Sephiroth, a man he once had to learn all the weaknesses and strengths to the point he knew how his mind worked better than his own, it made things three times harder. Cloud only remembered Sephiroth the One Winged Angel, the son of JENOVA and the harbinger of the Apocalypse. This Sephiroth sleeping here was a completely different person, a bright and intelligent child, eager to learn but still with a preference for fairy tales.

Cloud had much trouble believing the child he had taken into his care would become the Planet's greatest threat. And just thinking what would have to happen to make that turnover, what _had happened_, made him want to go and kill things. Suddenly the quick death he had given Hojo by burning to ashes was not enough. He wanted to find the corpse of the mad scientist and torture him in ways that would leave his supposedly genius mind on a level with an amoeba's. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible anymore as even if he managed to find the scientist's body not even Phoenix Down combined with Full Cure would bring him back.

Cloud decided to find comfort in that fact and took the Book of Genesis from the table. He either still didn't need sleep or his reserves were much higher than before but he did not feel the usual pull of exhaustion that would lull him to sleep. So he might as well read the fairy tale that Sephiroth was so fond of.

* * *

Getting her breathing back to normal had been a hard task, but slumped against the door of her bedroom with her forehead on her knees Meta finally managed to calm down and think more or less rationally about her little encounter.

What in Minerva's name was he?! She wasn't even sure if Cloud knew it, but in that little display of intimidating power, Meta had sensed his very being, the Lifestream that coursed through every living creature. And what she felt terrified her beyond words.

Meta was a witch, a highly skilled one. Skilled to the point that it was unnatural. Her senses acute enough that, if she was standing close and the person was emotional, she could nearly hear the Lifestream within them. But it wasn't really hearing in the true sense of the word. It was more feeling, akin to empathy. It allowed her to judge the person they were within, their true self.

Cloud for one thing had the Lifestream so powerful within him that she was surprised he hadn't dissolved yet. That high concentration of Mako within a human would cause severe case of Mako poisoning, severe to the point of nearly instant death, then dissipation back into the Lifestream. It meant Cloud wasn't human.

Or it was equally possible that the dark presence she felt hiding within him was the cause of that. It was something Meta had never felt before. It seemed to be wrapping the Lifestream around itself, or the Lifestream was wrapping itself around it. She wasn't sure what the reason for either to act like that, and whatever reason it was, it was creating a paradox. Lifestream infused itself in anything organic, living or not. That presence was definitely alive yet the Lifestream was circling it, as if it couldn't touch it. If that was the case, it should have been little more than a mass of inorganic chemicals and not a sentient mind.

Cloud was a walking paradox, and she wasn't even sure if he knew it.

It was really hard to resist barging into the guestroom and demand answers or simply fry them out of him with Bolt3, but she managed. If Cloud survived as long as he did like that, it was highly unlikely he would do something drastic. While the two forces within him were doing something neither was supposed to, if she had to use common terms she would say they had reached a _status quo_ where they were quietly evading each other without harming to host. If she could get close to him she might be able to study on it a little more but as controlled as the mercenary had proven to be it would be a real challenge.

Meta sighed. Well, at least she had a mastered Sense Materia in here somewhere.

* * *

Of course, the news of an entire fleet of ShinRa transfer trucks having burned down was immediately met with Turks investigating. That's how Veld found himself standing on the sight of wreckage with President ShinRa screeching into his phone and a major headache at hand. It didn't help in the least that the entire population of the nearby village had gathered of the tape they had to put around. The fire had at least been distinguished, but the hope of finding any survivors was slim to none. Everything, from the toughest metals to anything organic had been reduced to ash. It was nearly impossible to find something at least recognizable, let alone alive!

"Commander, we have found a survivor!" Veld whipped around so fast he nearly blurred. The fellow Turk who had informed him of it stood his ground however and motioned him to follow. And indeed, there was a woman with mussed dirty and blackened blonde hair and covered in sot, holding a blanket over her shoulders like a lifeline. Veld's sharp eye looked her over in a second and was relieved to see she only had some mild burns.

Unfortunately, from the way she was frantically mumbling to herself he had to question her state of mind.

"Could you please step back sir? She has suffered a severe mental trauma and is going into shock as we speak. We need to check her over." A young medic said respectfully but firmly. Veld ignored him however and came to stand directly in front of the woman.

"What is your name Miss?" He asked in a comforting voice. It had the desired results as the woman looked at him shakily. Veld felt a pang of sympathy for her.

"S-Stacey. I-I'm a… lab ass-istant." She stuttered. Veld wasn't sure if it was from the trauma or the cold but most likely a mix of both. When he didn't say anything for a minute she started mumbling to herself again. Veld wasn't certain, but it sounded like she was reciting Ave Maria.

"Sir, I have to request that you move aside. She-"

"Young man, she is a witness of the worst attack ShinRa has ever suffered. It is crucial we question her while her memories are still fresh and her sanity still more or less intact." Veld bit back at the medic. However well meaning the young man was he really was a nuisance. Veld turned back to the traumatized woman, this time sitting on the stretcher beside her.

"Tell me, did you see what has caused this?" Stacey looked at him with wide eyes, but gave a slow nod.

"Could you tell me?" Veld asked. She looked into her lap and hugged the blanket closer to her chest. She mumbled something under her breath Veld didn't quite catch.

"Excuse me, could you repeat that?"

"It was the Devil." She whispered almost reverently. "The Devil came to the mortal world riding a dragon, breathing fire on all who crossed his path. He came here for…"

Veld didn't understand what did she mean by the Devil, but he feared she wasn't using a metaphor. "What did he come here for?"

Stacey stiffened. "He came for him."

Veld suddenly had a sinking feeling. "Came here for whom?"

Suddenly the woman grabbed his hand and looked him in the eyes, her own wide with fear.

"He came here for his child! And he will destroy anyone who stands in his path! Repent while you can, for the Devil has come to the Planet, and sinners will burn by the flame he breathes upon them!"

"Calm down please, what child?" Veld tried to calm the woman down, but her words were starting to give him a really uneasy feeling. The woman all but screamed in his face.

"The child we took from him! The child he has returned to claim! He has taken Sephiroth!"

* * *

AN: _Meta is proving to be a character with almost as many secrets as Cloud. I originally didn't plan to use her entire history in this story, of which we will find out more about in the next chapter. _

_Stacey Rayleigh had indeed been spared and had a shock over the whole thing. And people, really, don't tell me you don't recognize her? Granted, she didn't have a name so I have her one but do any of you remember the Professor Rayleigh? Anyone?_

_As usual, reviews will be loved, constructive criticism read, re-read, and fawned over, and flames used to make marshmallows._


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